presented  to  the 
UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 

by 

Mrs.   John  C.   A.   Watkins 


Safeguarding 
American  Ideals 

A  Brief  Study 

of 

Our  Heritage 

Our  Negligence 

Our  Responsibility 


"Civilisation  is  a  contract  between  the  great  dead,  the 
tiring  and  the  unborn." 

— Edmund  Burke. 


Safeguarding 
American  Ideals 


BY 


HARRY  F.  ATWOOD 

Author  of  "Back  to  the  Republic," 
"Keep  God  in  American  History." 


Published  by 

LAIRD  &  LEE,  INC. 

Chicago,  111. 


Copyright  1921 

by 
HARRY  F.  ATWOOD 

First  Edition  Printed  August,  1921 


DcDicatcD  Uiiti)  profound  gratitude  to  tl)c  men 
anD  toomen  tobo  laid  tfie  foundation 
for  t&e  finest  civilisation  of  I)i0torp 
and  provided  opportunity  for  110  to 
render  t&e  mo$t  splendid  service 
tfic  UiorlD  Ijas  ever  bnouut. 


PREFACE 


'  I  SHE  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  set  forth 
briefly  and  clearly  those  fundamental  Ideals 
which  have  made  us  a  great  and  substantial 
people. 

The  reason  for  writing  the  book  is  a  conviction 
that  during  recent  years  we  have  been  drifting 
from  the  moorings  and  wandering  away  from  the 
corner  stones  that  marked  our  sterling  character 
and  stable  progress. 

It  is  written  in  the  hope  that  it  may  sound  a 
warning  note  to  stop,  look  and  listen — to  heed 
the  still,  small  voice  of  conscience  and  learn  from 
the  lessons  of  experience  which  history  teaches 
so  clearly. 

It  is  an  invitation  to  come  and  reason  together 
concerning  the  great  heritage  that  has  been  be- 
queathed to  us;  to  consider  seriously  whether  we 
are  willing  to  depart  further  therefrom  and  con- 
tinue substituting  therefor  the  whirlpools  of  class 
consciousness  and  the  quicksands  of  chaos. 

It  is  not  an  alarm  against  the  Reds  or  the  bomb 
throwers.  It  is  an  appeal  to  the  American  born, 


American  naturalized,  American  educated  peo- 
ple of  this  country  who  need  awakening  to  the 
tremendous  and  crucial  problems  of  government 
and  industry  that  confront  us. 

Those  who  are  sitting  back  complacently  and 
attributing  the  present  situation  solely  to  the 
effect  of  the  world  war,  should  study  carefully 
the  conditions  that  prevailed  in  this  country  in 
1914.  It  will  reveal  the  fact  that  there  was 
general  depression  and  confusion  at  that  time. 

The  war  gave  us  a  good  market,  set  people  to 
work  and  stimulated  business.  Now  we  are  con- 
fronted with  problems  very  similar  to  those  that 
appeared  before  the  war. 

A  careful  survey  of  the  tendency  during  the 
last  twenty  years  to  drift  from  representative 
government  toward  direct  action ;  from  individual 
property  rights  toward  socialistic  and  paternal- 
istic ideas,  will  also  throw  much  light  on  the  cause 
of  the  chaotic  conditions  that  prevail  at  this  time. 

With  home-wrecking  and  divorce  on  the  in- 
crease ;  with  our  schools  devoted  too  much  to  fads 
and  fallacies  at  the  expense  of  truth;  with  the 
doors  of  many  churches  closed ;  with  city  councils 
and  State  legislatures  enacting  socialistic  legisla- 
tion; with  our  Congress  responsible  for  the 
Adamson  bill  and  other  class  legislation  and  our 


higher  courts  handing  down  decisions  approving 
legislation  which  impairs  the  obligation  of  con- 
tract and  assaults  individual  property  rights; 
with  the  agencies  and  expenses  of  government 
multiplying  with  disturbing  rapidity;  it  is  high 
time  for  us  to  consider  the  sources  and  analyze  the 
causes  of  turbulence  and  confusion  and  to  realize 
that  American  ideals  are  not  visionary  depar- 
tures from  the  tried  and  true,  as  has  been  so 
generally  regarded  of  late  years,  but  rather  ad- 
herence and  devotion  to  those  eternal  verities  that 
should  endure. 

High  standards  of  individual  and  institutional 
character  made  America  great.  The  perpetuity 
of  America  is  dependent  upon  the  maintenance  of 
those  high  standards. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     INTENSIVE  INDUSTRY         .        .        .        .        .  15 

II.     THE  MORAL  HOME 21 

III.     THE  PATRIOTIC  SCHOOL 27 

IV.     THE  SPIRITUAL  CHURCH    .        .        .        .        .  35 

V.     OUR  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION    ....  48 

VI.     REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT       .        .        .  57 

VII.     INDIVIDUAL  PROPERTY  RIGHTS         ...  67 

VIII.     INDIVIDUAL  FREEDOM  IN  INDUSTRY          .        .  77 

IX.     AVOIDANCE  OF  CLASS  CONSCIOUSNESS      .        .  91 

X.     REVERENCE  FOR  LAW       .....  99 

XI.     UNSELFISH  NATIONALISM          ....  109 

XII.     LOYALTY  TO  THE  FLAG     .        .        .        .        .115 

CONCLUSION  121 


Safeguarding  American  Ideals 


CHAPTER  I 
INTENSIVE  INDUSTRY 

TT7HAT  the  people  of  this  country  and  the 
entire  world  need  is  a  revival  of  devotion 
to  duty  through  patient  and  painstaking  in- 
dustry. 

We  need  to  regrasp  the  wholesome  truth  that 
work  is  God's  medium  of  happiness;  that  the 
secret  of  real  happiness  is  to  do  one's  job  well, 
and  that  it  does  not  make  much  difference  what 
the  job  is. 

The  builders  of  this  Republic  were  the  busiest 
and  hardest  working  people  of  history,  which  is 
one  of  the  chief  causes  why  within  a  century  this 
country  became  the  leading  nation  of  the  world, 
and  another  evidence  of  the  time-tried  truism  that 
genius  is  as  closely  akin  to  perspiration  as  to  in- 
spiration. 

Added  charm  and  dignity  are  given  to  indus- 
try as  we  contemplate  how  the  builders  of  this 


16          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

Republic  toiled  to  clear  the  forests  and  till  the 
soil  and  build  homes  and  schools  and  churches  and 
factories ;  how  they  worked  and  prayed  until  they 
had  laid  the  foundation  for  the  first  and  only  suc- 
cessful government  in  history;  how  they  applied 
their  skill,  inventing  and  building  machines,  and 
harnessing  steam  and  electricity,  until  we  became 
the  greatest  industrial  nation  in  the  world;  how 
they  made  it  easier  to  acquire  the  necessaries,  and 
possible  to  enjoy  more  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
life  than  had  ever  been  known  before  in  any  place 
at  any  time. 

One  of  the  serious  questions  before  this  genera- 
tion is,  Are  we  assuming  as  wholesome  and 
normal  an  attitude  toward  industry  as  was 
characteristic  of  those  who  taught  us  by  example 
and  precept  the  blessing  of  work,  and  left  us  a 
heritage  unequaled  in  the  annals  of  the  human 
race? 

"Idleness  breeds  mischief." 

One  of  the  injunctions  in  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment is,  "Six  days  shalt  thou  labor."  There 
is  abundant  evidence  that  during  recent  years 
there  has  been  too  much  disposition  to  substitute 
shrewdness,  cleverness,  reckless  speculation, 
gambling,  "blue  sky"  stock- jobbing  schemes, 
rampant  unionism,  and  patent  medicine  cure-all 


Intensive  Industry  17 

legislation  for  clean,  straight,  constructive 
achievement  through  the  processes  of  honest,  in- 
dividual endeavor  and  stable  organized  eff ort. 

When  Jesus  Christ  was  twelve  years  old,  he 
said  to  his  mother:  "Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be 
about  my  Father's  business?" 

Many  of  the  great  men  of  this  country  have 
been  the  sons  of  widowed  mothers.  It  is  quite 
possible  and  extremely  probable  that  much  of 
their  greatness  is  due  to  the  fact  that  early  in 
life  they  were  required  to  be  about  their  fathers' 
business,  in  order  to  provide  for  the  widowed 
mother  and  her  family,  thereby  learning  the  les- 
sons of  assuming  responsibility,  exercising  judg- 
ment, making  decisions  and  acquiring  the  habits 
of  industry. 

It  would  have  a  wonderfully  wholesome  effect 
upon  the  people  of  this  generation  if  they  would 
take  up  the  reading  of  biography,  a  study  of  the 
lives  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  made  their 
impress  upon  progress.  Inspiration  has  come  to 
many  through  the  reading  of  biography,  because 
it  reveals  the  fact  that  industry  is  the  key  to  hap- 
piness, contentment  and  success. 

We  are  concentrating  too  much  on  the  ques- 
tion, How  much  can  we  get?  and  too  little  on  the 
question,  How  much  can  we  serve? — not  realiz- 


18  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

ing  that  ultimately,  in  the  great  plan  of  Divine 
Providence,  the  law  of  compensation  will  work  as 
surely  and  accurately  as  the  law  of  gravitation. 

We  of  this  Republic  must  rededicate  ourselves 
to  industry  and  preach  the  gospel  of  industry  by 
example  and  precept  to  the  people  of  foreign 
countries.  They  need  to  go  back  to  work  more 
than  they  need  food  or  money.  It  is  their  only 
way  out  of  chaos. 

It  should  be  the  supreme  purpose  in  every 
home  and  school  and  church,  and  on  every  farm 
and  in  every  kind  of  business  in  this  land,  to  make 
work  more  congenial,  more  interesting,  more 
equitable  and  productive,  and  to  start  a  spirit  of 
service  that  shall  radiate  through  every  nook  and 
corner  of  this  good  old  planet. 

"Work,  For  the  Night  Is  Coming*'  is  one  of 
the  grandest  old  songs  ever  set  to  music.  The 
whole  plan  of  creation  and  existence  contemplates 
the  necessity  and  joy  of  work.  Nearly  all  food 
products  are  perishable;  therefore  we  have  con- 
stant work  in  tilling  the  soil,  sowing"  the  seed,  nur- 
turing the  plants,  harvesting  the  crops  and 
preparing  them  for  food. 

Clothing  wears  out  rapidly;  therefore  we  must 
grow  cotton  and  wool  and  hides  and  other  prod- 
ucts and  do  all  the  work  necessary  to  provide 


Intensive  Industry  19 

raiment  for  the  human  race.  The  precious  metals 
are  hidden  deeply  in  the  rocky  bowels  of  the 
earth;  therefore  we  must  delve  to  find  them  and 
prepare  them  for  use  and  for  pleasure. 

To  provide  means  for  travel,  we  must  invent 
and  construct  vehicles  of  locomotion,  build  the 
roads,  span  the  rivers  and  tunnel  mountains.  In 
commerce  there  must  ever  continue  a  repetition 
of  production  and  distribution. 

There  is  no  royal  road  to  learning.  The  great 
scholars,  philosophers,  poets,  scientists,  inventors, 
statesmen  and  theologians  must  diligently  seek 
out  the  truth  by  intense  and  untiring  application 
throughout  the  day  and  into  the  long,  quiet  hours 
of  the  night. 

The  dynamic  St.  Paul,  in  his  message  to  the 
Corinthians,  among  other  things  said: 

Watch  ye,  stand  fast  in  the  faith; 
Quit  you  like  men;  be  strong. 

In  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy,  as  he 
neared  the  close  of  his  industry  on  earth,  he  said : 

But  watch  thou  in  all  things;  endure  afflictions;  do  the 
work  of  an  evangelist ;  make  full  proof  of  thy  ministry. 

For  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  time  of  my 
departure  is  at  hand. 

I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course, 
T  have  kept  the  faith. 


20          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

America  is  calling  today  for  men  and  women 
to  watch,  to  stand  fast,  to  be  strong,  to  keep  the 
faith,  and  to  work. 

In  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  in  one  of  His  par- 
ables, we  find  Jesus  Christ  using  the  phrase  "Son, 
go  work  today  in  my  vineyard,"  and  again  in 
Matthew  He  said:  "He  that  is  greatest  among 
you  shall  be  your  servant." 

In  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  Jesus  said:  "My 
Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work." 

Again  in  St.  John  He  said:  "I  have  glorified 
Thee  on  the  earth,  I  have  finished  the  work  which 
Thou  gavest  me  to  do." 

The  greatest  heritage  that  fond  parents  can 
leave  their  children  is  a  love  for  work  and  capacity 
for  useful  service.  One  of  the  glorious  ideals  that 
has  made  America  great  is  good,  old-fashioned, 
intensive  industry. 

Labor f  omnia  vincit — labor  are  est  or  are: 

Labor  conquereth  all  things — to  labor  is  to 
pray. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MORAL  HOME 

TT  WOULD  greatly  help  to  clarify  our  think- 

ing  on  social,  industrial,  political  and  religious 
problems  if  the  phrase  "institutional  demarca- 
tion" could  be  constantly  borne  in  mind. 

There  are  four  institutions  in  this  country :  the 
home,  the  school,  the  church,  and  the  govern- 
ment. Each  has  its  proper  functions  to  perform, 
but  during  recent  years  there  has  been  a  tendency 
to  blame  each  of  them  for  not  performing  the 
functions  of  the  three  others. 

It  would  have  a  very  healthy  effect  on  the 
general  situation  if  all  individuals  who  undertake 
to  inaugurate  reforms  to  improve  conditions, 
would  begin  by  asking  themselves  the  question: 
Is  this  a  problem  of  the  home,  or  the  school,  or 
the  church,  or  the  government?  and  determine 
that  question  carefully  before  procedure. 

The  home  has  to  do  with  the  care  of  the  physical 
life,  the  school  with  the  development  of  the 
mental,  the  church  with  the  enrichment  of  the 
spiritual,  and  the  function  of  the  government  is 


22  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

to  protect  individuals  in  their  right  of  person  and 
right  of  property,  in  such  manner  as  may  be  con- 
sistent with  the  best  possible  public  welfare. 

There  is  a  tendency,  however,  to  neglect  the 
home  and  criticise  the  school  for  not  doing  what 
is  properly  the  function  of  the  home  or  the 
church,  and  to  criticise  the  church  for  not  per- 
forming what  is  properly  the  function  of  the 
home  or  the  school. 

There  has  been  a  very  serious  tendency  during 
recent  years  to  criticise  and  call  upon  the  govern- 
ment to  perform  the  functions  of  all  four. 

These  four  institutions  are  closely  related  and 
interwoven,  and  the  proper  functioning  of  each 
aids  the  effort  of  the  three  others;  but  they  are 
separate  and  distinct,  and  each  has  its  proper 
place  in  the  development  of  the  human  plant,  just 
as  the  four  seasons  of  the  year,  which  are  closely 
related  and  interwoven,  have  each  their  proper 
functions  to  perform  in  the  development  of  plant 
life. 

The  homes  of  the  American  people  are  the 
foundation  stones  on  which  the  structure  of  the 
Republic  rests.  They  are  the  fountains,  the 
springs  from  whence  must  come  the  lifeblood  of 
Americanism.  The  environment  of  the  home 
determines  in  a  very  marked  degree  the  character 


The  Moral  Home  23 

of  children  that  attend  our  schools,  the  quality  of 
people  that  support  our  churches,  and  the  type  of 
citizens  that  maintain  the  government  and  de- 
velop and  foster  our  industries. 

The  sanctity  of  the  home  rests  upon  the  solemn 
vows  of  a  monogamous  marriage,  which  is  more 
than  a  contract — it  is  a  sacrament;  one  man  and 
one  woman,  lawfully  wedded,  producing  legiti- 
mate children,  serving  as  a  unit  in  society,  pro- 
viding for  the  orderly  descent  of  property,  the 
legitimacy  of  names,  and  for  sharing  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  life  for  better  or  for  worse. 

The  monogamous  marriage  is  the  golden  mean 
between  the  dangerous  extremes  of  polygamy  on 
the  one  hand,  and  promiscuity  on  the  other.  It 
has  been  the  pride  of  this  Republic  that  the  stand- 
ard of  sincerity  in  taking  the  marriage  vows,  and 
fidelity  of  adherence  to  those  vows,  has  been  very 

high- 
One  of  the  serious  questions  confronting  this 
generation  is,  Are  we  lowering  the  standard  of 
sincerity  and  fidelity  to  the  marriage  vow  and  sub- 
stituting a  laxness  and  looseness  in  the  social 
fabric  for  the  sanctity  of  the  home?  Is  the  social 
evil  growing  worse? 

Every  day  the  newspapers  report  polygamous, 
bigamous,  and  promiscuous  activities  on  the  part 


24          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

of  men  and  women  who  have  been  reared  in  good 
homes,  who  have  been  trained  in  our  schools,  who 
have  attended  our  churches,  and  who  have  entered 
into  the  holy  bonds  of  wedlock. 

The  steady  increase  in  percentage  of  marriages 
which  result  in  home  wrecking  and  divorce,  is  one 
of  the  deadliest  dangers  confronting  us. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Carver,  Curate  of  Christ 
Episcopal  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  recently 
produced  a  divorce  drama  and  took  a  leading  role 
on  the  stage  himself  to  bring  the  attention  of  the 
people  to  the  great  divorce  evil.  In  taking  the 
step,  he  explained  to  a  newspaper  correspondent : 
"The  idea  we  are  trying  to  carry  out  is  to  plant 
in  the  public  mind  the  increasing  evil  of  the 
divorce  system,  which  is  making  America  the 
laughing-stock  of  the  world  and  which  is  poison- 
ing our  national  life  at  its  source." 

|We  cannot  undermine  the  foundation  of  civili- 
zation without  lowering  the  standard  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  startling  statistics  show  a  downward 
trend.  It  is  a  fitting  time,  in  this  age  of  unrest 
and  discontent  and  instability,  for  men  and 
women,  especially  those  who  enjoy  the  comforts 
of  life  and  the  privileges  of  education  and  cul- 
ture, to  ask  themselves  what  influence  their  reck- 
less and  criminal  disregard  of  all  that  makes 


The  Moral  Home  25 

home  sacred  must  have  on  the  virtue  and  attitude 
of  the  rising  generation. 

We  need  a  revival  of  the  home  spirit  and  higher 
appreciation  of  its  genuine  value. 

This  is  a  good  time  for  the  young  people  to 
read  and  ponder  the  Fifth  Commandment,  and 
for  the  older  people  to  read  and  interpret  in  their 
daily  lives  the  Tenth  Commandment,  and  for  all 
of  them  to  sing  together,  over  and  over  again, 
"Home,  Sweet  Home,"  "The  Old  Oaken 
Bucket,"  and  "The  Swanee  River." 

The  laws  governing  divorce  should  be  more 
stringent  and  uniform ;  the  church  should  be  more 
strict  and  insistent;  the  courts  should  be  more 
specific  and  severe,  and  the  people  should  develop 
a  higher  morale  in  order  to  bring  about  a  lessening 
of  the  divorce  evil  and  an  ever  increasing  moral 
atmosphere  in  the  home. 

"Charity  begins  at  home,"  and  right  influences 
radiate  from  the  family  circle.  Home  is  the  in- 
stitution upon  which  the  welfare  of  other  institu- 
tions rests. 

There  would  be  a  heartening  thrill  of  hope  for 
the  future  of  this  Republic  and  the  world,  if  it 
could  be  known  that  immediately  all  of  the  peo- 
ple would  give  one  hour  of  serious  thought  to  the 
need  of  their  homes,  and  make  a  solemn  resolve 


26  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

that  they  would  exert  every  possible  influence 
toward  making  them  what  they  ought  to  be. 

We  have  greatly  added  to  the  physical  beauty 
of  homes  through  improved  engineering,  archi- 
tecture and  landscape  gardening.  We  have 
greatly  added  to  the  comfort  of  homes  through 
better  plumbing,  sanitation  and  interior  decora- 
tion. 

Are  we  improving  the  character  of  the  people 
who  dwell  in  the  homes?  "Only  from  the  tree 
which  is  sound  cometh  sound  fruit."  A  moral 
home  in  a  cottage  is  a  greater  bulwark  to  this 
Republic  than  an  immoral  home  in  a  palace. 

Improving  the  influence  and  raising  higher  the 
social  and  moral  standards  of  the  home  will  go 
far  toward  elevating  all  other  ideals.  Let  us 
stand  fast  for  that  sterling  American  ideal, — the 
character,  the  sanctity,  and  the  purity  of  the 
moral  home. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PATRIOTIC  SCHOOL 

IT  IS  a  wonderful  story  that  tells  of  the  effort 
and  determination  manifested  in  the  building 
and  establishment  of  schools  and  colleges,  and  the 
tremendous  energy  with  which  our  forebears 
strove  for  education. 

The  romance  of  the  sacrifices  of  fathers  and 
mothers  in  moderate  and  ofttimes  straitened  cir- 
cumstances, to  provide  their  children  with  better 
opportunities  for  education  than  they  themselves 
had  enjoyed,  is  one  of  the  finest  chapters  in 
American  history. 

Mothers  have  taken  in  washing  to  help  defray 
the  expenses  of  their  sons  in  college.  They  have 
done  the  housework  alone  in  order  that  their 
daughters  might  have  opportunity  for  education. 
Fathers  have  toiled  alone  on  the  farms  and  in  the 
factories  when  the  help  of  their  children  was 
needed,  in  order  that  their  offspring  might  receive 
educational  privileges  to  better  fit  them  for  tak- 
ing advantage  of  opportunities  for  service. 

Men   and  women   of  wealth  have   endowed 


28          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

libraries  and  hospitals,  colleges  and  universities 
and  other  institutions  to  broaden  the  field  of  op- 
portunity for  useful  knowledge. 

Religious  denominations  have  erected  and  main- 
tained centers  of  learning.  Public  officials  have 
lavished  the  money  of  taxpayers  upon  public 
schools  and  State  universities,  for  the  purpose  of 
providng  a  more  intelligent  and  useful  citizenship. 

We  are  rich  indeed  in  school  buildings  and 
campuses,  gymnasiums,  dormitories  and  libraries 
and  laboratories  and  experimental  stations. 

We  have  made  great  progress  during  recent 
years  in  architecture,  engineering,  medicine,  sur- 
gery, invention,  mechanics,  agriculture  and 
science. 

One  of  the  very  serious  questions  for  the  people 
of  this  generation  is,  Does  the  influence  of  our 
schools  make  for  the  maintenance  and  improve- 
ment of  American  ideals,  or  are  they  running 
too  much  to  fads  and  fallacies,  at  the  expense  of 
truth?  Does  the  influence  of  our  schools  tend  to 
develop  great  mothers  and  fathers  and  preachers 
and  teachers  and  authors  and  statesmen  to  ex- 
pound and  uphold  the  fundamentals  that  have 
made  us  the  world's  greatest  people,  or  are  we 
falling  a  little  below  the  standard  set  for  us  by 
former  generations  in  this  regard? 


The  Patriotic  School  29 

There  are  comparatively  few  who  will  contend 
that  there  has  ever  been  written  a  good  history  of 
the  United  States  of  America.  We  hear  much 
of  the  organization  of  liberal  societies,  much  talk 
of  socialism  and  paternalism,  much  advocacy  of 
the  substitution  of  direct  for  representative  gov- 
ernment, and  much  discussion  of  class  conscious- 
ness in  our  schools. 

Has  there  ever  been  a  United  States  history 
written  that  makes  it  clear  to  the  average  student 
that  the  people  of  this  country  made  a  flat  and 
pitiful  failure  of  government  until  1787,  when 
the  Constitution  was  written,  and  that  during  the 
period  of  history  from  the  time  we  wrote  the 
Constitution  until  we  occupied  the  leading  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  world,  that  there  was 
little  discussion  of  direct  government,  but  much 
of  representative  government ;  little  discussion  of 
socialism  or  paternalism,  but  much  discussion  of 
individual  property  rights ;  little  talk  of  class  con- 
sciousness and  labor  unionism,  but  much  of  in- 
dividual freedom  in  industry  and  proportionate 
reward  for  individual  initiative  and  achievement ; 
little  talk  of  the  red  flag,  but  much  devotion  to  the 
Stars  and  Stripes ;  little  talk  of  a  democracy,  but 
much  talk  of  the  Republic? 

There  are  comparatively  few  people  who  will 


•0  Safeguarding  American  I  dealt 

insist  that  there  has  ever  been  written  a  textbook 
on  civics  or  civil  government  that  makes  clear  to 
the  average  student  the  form  of  government  that 
was  established  here  under  the  Constitution. 

There  is  much  talk  of  democracy  in  our  schools, 
and  yet  there  is  not  a  democratic  thing  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  nor  the  faint- 
est hint  of  a  suggestion  that  anything  under  the 
Constitution  would  ever  be  done  in  a  democratic 
way,  even  in  the  creation  of  the  Constitution 
itself,  or  its  adoption,  or  its  amendment,  or  its 
plan  of  administration,  and  we  still  require  our 
public  officials  to  take  an  oath  to  uphold,  protect 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  is  the  only  thing  they  are  sworn  to  do. 

The  Constitution  provided  for  a  representative 
government,  and  the  founders  called  it  a  Repub- 
lic. It  guarantees  to  each  of  the  States  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government.  Those  who  are  talking 
democracy  in  our  schools  should  turn  to  the 
Federalist,  the  greatest  governmental  discussion 
in  the  libraries  of  the  world,  and  ask  themselves 
what  Madison  means  in  Federalist  number  X,  by 
the  following  language : 

"Hence  it  is  that  such  democracies  have  ever 
been  spectacles  of  turbulence  and  contention, 
have  ever  been  found  incompatible  with  personal 


The  Patriotic  School  81 

security  or  the  rights  of  property,  and  have  in 
general  been  as  short  in  their  lives  as  they  have 
been  violent  in  their  deaths.  ...  A  Republic,  by 
which  I  mean  a  government  in  which  the  scheme 
of  representation  takes  place,  opens  a  different 
prospect  and  promises  the  cure  for  which  we  are 
seeking.  .  .  .  The  two  great  points  of  difference 
between  a  democracy  and  a  republic  are  .  .  . 
Hence  it  clearly  appears  that  the  same  advantage 
which  a  republic  has  over  a  democracy  .  .  ." 
And  again  in  Federalist  number  XIV:  "It  seems 
to  owe  its  rise  and  prevalence  chiefly  to  the  con- 
founding of  a  republic  with  a  democracy  and 
applying  to  the  former  reasons  drawn  from  the 
nature  of  the  latter.  The  true  distinction  be- 
tween these  forms  was  also  adverted  to  on  a  for- 
mer occasion.  ..." 

Was  Madison  merely  playing  with  words  when 
he  wrote  the  above  language  into  the  Federalist 
at  a  time  when  the  destiny  of  his  country  hung  in 
the  balance,  or  was  he  clearing  up  a  tremendously 
important  distinction  on  which  the  world  quite 
generally  has  been  disastrously  confused  during 
recent  years? 

While  addressing  an  audience  of  more  than 
5,000  students  in  one  of  our  large  State  universi- 
ties recently,  I  asked  all  of  those  who  had  ever 


82          Safeguarding  American  I  dealt 

read  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  raise 
their  hands,  and  there  was  a  showing  of  less  than 
thirty  per  cent.  Think  of  it !  Less  than  one-third 
of  a  large  group  of  students,  who  had  received 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  years'  education  at  the 
expense  of  the  State,  had  ever  read  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States !  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
there  is  much  confusion  in  governmental  dis- 
cussion? 

So  long  as  the  expense  of  the  public  schools 
and  State  universities  is  paid  by  the  government, 
one  object  at  least  should  be  to  turn  out  well- 
informed  and  patriotic  citizens,  and  the  best  pos- 
sible way  to  do  that  is  to  give  them  an  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution  and 
a  high  regard  for  its  wise  provisions. 

The  purpose  underlying  the  establishment  of 
public  schools  was  a  patriotic  one.  It  was  re- 
garded as  a  good  investment  for  the  future  of  this 
Republic  to  give  the  children  opportunity  at 
public  expense  to  secure  a  better  understand- 
ing of  this  government  in  order  that  they 
might  become  more  intelligent  and  patriotic 
citizens. 

That  also  was  very  largely  the  purpose  of 
privately  endowed  educational  institutions  prior 
to  the  establishment  of  public  schools,  and  to  a 


The  Patriotic  School  33 

considerable  degree  the  purpose  of  donations  for 
education  given  by  philanthropists  of  recent 
years. 

Teachers  in  the  public  schools  should  be  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  their  salaries  are  paid 
at  public  expense  for  the  promotion  of  the  public 
welfare. 

Every  child  who  accepts  educational  training 
at  the  expense  of  the  government  should  be  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  an  obligation  has  been 
incurred  which  can  be  discharged  only  through  a 
lifetime  of  intelligent  and  loyal  devotion  to  the 
duties  of  citizenship. 

It  would  be  a  great  thing  for  this  Republic,  if 
all  of  the  educators  and  school  teachers  would 
consider  seriously  the  question  as  to  whether  or 
not  the  institutions  with  which  they  are  identified 
are  radiating  a  wholesome  influence  for  the  best 
brand  of  Americanism,  and,  if  not,  to  highly  re- 
solve that  they  will  do  so. 

What  we  find  in  the  schools  today  will  per- 
meate the  life  of  the  country  tomorrow.  A  high 
standard  of  citizenship  is  all  important. 

Foreign  countries  are  drifting  and  suffering 
through  lack  of  stability  in  government.  They 
are  looking  to  this  country  for  example  and  guid- 
ance. The  times  are  pregnant  with  great  possi- 


84          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

bilities  for  constructive  work  along  governmental 
lines  in  our  educational  institutions. 

Many  of  the  splendid  men  and  women  who  are 
devoting  their  lives  to  educational  work  could 
greatly  broaden  their  influence  for  good  through 
a  better  understanding  of  the  history  of  this 
country  and  a  greater  knowledge  of  the  form  of 
government  established  here  under  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

In  my  judgment,  the  most  defective  portion  of 
our  thinking  and  teaching  in  the  schools  is  that 
phase  of  education  which  pertains  to  civics,  eco- 
nomics, and  history.  Civilization  is  fairly  crying 
for  a  better  understanding  of  the  past  as  a  guide 
for  the  future. 

Let  us  point  the  way  through  the  enlightening 
influence  of  that  great  American  ideal,  the 
patriotic  school. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SPIRITUAL  CHURCH 

A  LL  through  our  history  there  has  run,  like  a 
golden  thread,  a  deeply  religious  strain. 
More  than  any  other  country  we  have  been  a  re- 
ligious and  God-loving  people. 

The  founders  of  this  Republic  provided  for  the 
greatest  possible  freedom  to  individuals  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
own  consciences.  They  provided  a  complete 
separation  of  church  and  state,  and  made  a  Con- 
stitutional provision  that  no  religious  test  shall 
ever  be  required  as  a  qualification  to  any  office  of 
public  trust  under  the  United  States. 

In  the  early  days  they  were  a  church  building, 
church  supporting  and  church  going  people. 
They  heeded  well  the  first  injunction  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment  to  "Remember  the  Sab- 
bath day  to  keep  it  holy."  They  builded  churches 
in  every  village  and  town  and  city,  and  church 
steeples  rose  in  the  valleys  and  on  the  hillsides. 
American  history  and  literature  fairly  glow  with 
evidences  of  reverence  and  worship. 


36          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

The  Mayflower  Compact  begins:  "In  the  name 
of  God,  Amen.  And  having  undertaken,  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  ..." 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence  we  find 
such  phrases  as  "Appealing  to  the  Supreme 
Judge  of  the  world  for  the  rectitude  of  our  inten- 
tions, and  for  the  support  of  this  Declaration 
with  a  firm  reliance  on  Divine  Providence." 

After  five  weeks  of  futile  effort  in  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  when  in  the  midst  of  a 
heated  discussion  they  were  about  to  adjourn  and 
abandon  the  great  purpose  for  which  they  had 
met,  Benjamin  Franklin  rose  and,  addressing 
George  Washington,  said  among  other  things : 

"In  this  situation  of  this  assembly,  groping,  as 
it  were,  in  the  dark  to  find  political  truth,  and 
scarce  able  to  distinguish  it  when  presented  to  us, 
how  has  it  happened,  sir,  that  we  have  not  hither- 
to once  thought  of  humbly  applying  to  the  Father 
of  Lights  to  illuminate  our  understandings?  .  .  . 

"I  have  lived,  sir,  a  long  time;  and  the  longer  I 
live  the  more  convincing  proofs  I  see  of  this  truth, 
that  God  governs  in  the  affairs  of  men.  And  if  a 
sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the  ground  without  His 
notice,  is  it  probable  that  an  empire  can  rise 
without  His  aid?  We  have  been  assured,  sir,  in 


The  Spiritual  Church  97 

the  Sacred  Writings,  that  'except  the  Lord  build 
the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.'  I 
firmly  believe  this ;  and  I  also  believe  that  without 
His  concurring  aid  we  shall  succeed  in  this  politi- 
cal building  no  better  than  the  builders  of 
Babel.  ..." 

George  Washington  closed  his  great  address  in 
the  Constitutional  Convention  with  the  words: 
"Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and 
honest  can  repair;  the  event  is  in  the  hands  of 
God." 

John  Marshall,  speaking  of  the  status  of  a 
judge,  said :  "Is  it  not  to  the  last  degree  impor- 
tant that  he  should  be  rendered  perfectly  and 
completely  independent,  with  nothing  to  influence 
and  control  him  but  God  and  his  conscience?" 

Daniel  Webster  said:  "The  ends  I  aim  at  shall 
be  my  country's,  my  God's,  and  Truth's." 

Lincoln  said:  "My  concern  is  not  so  much 
whether  God  is  on  our  side.  My  great  concern  is 
to  be  on  God's  side,  for  God  is  always  right." 

Garfield  said :  "God  reigns  and  the  government 
at  Washington  still  lives." 

Hundreds  of  similar  illustrations  can  be 
gleaned  from  our  glorious  past,  many  of  which 
are  given  in  my  little  book,  "Keep  God  in  Ameri- 
can History,"  and  all  evidencing  the  remarkable 


88  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

it  •        <7;/  r  v 

devotion  to  those  priceless  things  for  which  tiie 
churches  stood. 

In  most  families  it  was  the  hope  of  fond 
parents  that  their  most  promising  son  would  be 
called  to  the  ministry.  According  to  their  stand- 
ards, to  preach  the  gospel  was  greater  than 
worldly  fame  or  vast  wealth. 

A  very  serious  question  for  the  people  of  this 
generation  is,  Whither  is  the  church  tending? 
Where  are  the  great  pastors  of  former  days? 
Whence  shall  come  our  spiritual  awakening  and 
inspiration  if  we  continue  closing  the  doors  of 
our  churches  and  reducing  the  percentage  of 
attendance  of  our  people  upon  divine  worship? 

There  would  be  a  feeling  of  greater  confidence 
in  the  immediate  future  if  it  were  known  that 
everybody  physically  able  would  attend  church 
next  Sunday,  if  only  to  approach  our  heavenly 
Father  for  a  moment  of  earnest  and  silent  prayer; 
or,  that  everybody  in  this  country  of  sufficient 
age  to  do  so  would  commit  to  memory : 

"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firma- 
ment sheweth  His  handiwork.  Day  unto  day  uttereth 
speech,  and  night  unto  night  sheweth  knowledge.  There 
is  no  place  nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard." 

"The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not  want.  He 
maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures.  .  .  .  He  re- 


The  Spiritual  Church  39 

storeth  my  soul.  .  .  .  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  shall  fear  no  evil,  for 
Thou  art  with  me.  Thy  rod  and  Thy  staff  they  comfort 
me." 

"For  as  he  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he." 

"Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother." 

"Be  not  deceived;  God  is  not  mocked,  for  whatsoever  a 
man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 

"For  every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden." 

"To  every  man  according  to  his  work." 

"Therefore,  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also  unto  them." 

"Ye  must  be  born  again." 

We  will  make  greater  headway  on  the  road  to 
progress  through  saving  civilization  with  the  old 
Bible  than  by  trying  to  salvage  civilization  with  a 
new  Bible. 

What  effect  would  it  have  on  the  immediate 
future  if  all  the  men,  women  and  children  could 
be  gathered  into  the  churches  for  several  Sun- 
days, and  would  sing  together  the  beautiful 
songs : 

"How  gentle  God's  commands, 
How  kind  His  precepts  are." 

"Lead,  Kindly  Light, 
Amid  the  encircling  gloom." 


40          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

"Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee." 

"Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly." 

"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 

"O  God,  our  strength  in  ages  past, 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come." 

"Onward,  Christian  soldiers, 
Marching  as  to  war." 

"Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory 
Of  the  coming  of  the  Lord." 

The  strength  and  solidity  and  sweetness  of 
those  splendid  tunes  and  the  wondrous  words  of 
those  sacred  songs  would  stir  to  better  things  the 
hearts  of  even  those  who  are  criminally  inclined. 

The  following  is  a  news  item  appearing  in  a 
Chicago  daily  paper: 

"There  is  lack  of  theological  students,  young 
men  to  be  preachers.  Five  thousand  pulpits  are 
vacant,  and  ten  thousand  will  be  empty  soon." 

At  the  fourteenth  annual  convention  of  the 
Northern  Baptists,  held  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa, 
Dr.  Frank  W.  Padelford  is  quoted  as  saying: 


The  Spiritual  Church  41 

"There  is  serious  danger  of  raising  up  a  genera- 
tion of  men  and  women  who  know  nothing  of  the 
ideals  or  sanctions  of  religion.  The  situation 
needs  to  be  faced  seriously  and  immediately.  Not 
only  is  the  attendance  in  our  seminaries  at  a  low 
point,  but  there  are  few  ministerial  students  in 
our  colleges.  Not  for  a  long  time  has  the  number 
been  so  small.  Institutions  that  have  usually  had 
large  groups  of  ministerial  students  have  at 
present  scarcely  any  at  all." 

District  Attorney  Lewis  of  Kings  County, 
New  York,  in  an  address  in  Brooklyn,  said : 

"The  fact  that  only  573  children  out  of  1,373  in 
the  New  York  public  schools  have  more  than  a 
bowing  acquaintance  with  the  Ten  Command- 
ments has  a  very  definite  connection  with  the 
fact  that  two-thirds  of  those  who  commit  crimes 
against  the  State  of  New  York  are  between  six- 
teen and  twenty-one  years  of  age.  It  is  surpris- 
ing to  know  how  few  of  the  boys  and  girls  of 
today  understand  the  Ten  Commandments. 
They  are  the  rules  of  conduct  which  should  and 
must  be  known.  ...  If  crime  is  to  be  diminished, 
the  adult  population  must  take  greater  interest  in 
the  growing1  children.  All  parents  should  be 
watchful  of  their  children  and  see  that  they  re- 
ceive the  necessary  preliminary  training  in  the 


48          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

schools,  and  insist  that  at  least  one  day  in  each 
week  the  child  should  be  in  some  religious  school, 
getting  the  benefit  of  God's  teaching.  Too  little 
is  known  of  the  Bible." 

Would  not  a  feeling  of  almost  black  despair 
come  over  our  people  if  it  were  known  that  next 
Sunday  all  of  the  churches  would  be  closed,  that 
there  would  be  no  ministers  preaching  the  gospel 
in  our  pulpits  and  no  teachers  leading  our  chil- 
dren into  the  light  of  truth  in  the  Sunday  schools, 
no  singing  of  hymns  of  praise  and  supplication  to 
the  God  of  Nations,  but  instead,  that  all  would  be 
playing  golf  or  baseball  or  tennis  or  motoring  or 
attending  a  picnic  or  a  theatre,  or  would  have  been 
up  so  late  Saturday  night  dancing  or  playing 
poker  or  dissipating  that  they  would  have  to  sleep 
all  day  Sunday  to  recuperate? 

We  cannot  leave  the  support  of  our  churches 
or  the  enrichment  of  our  spiritual  life  "to 
George."  He  will  not  do  it,  and  he  could  not 
attend  to  it  if  he  would.  It  is  a  personal  matter. 
God  Almighty  and  Jesus  Christ  are  individual- 
ists. They  have  fixed  individual  responsibility  and 
individual  reward  very  definitely  and  accurately. 

In  perpetuating  America  we  must  hold  fast  to 
that  very  essential  American  ideal,  a  militant,  ag- 
gressive, and  ever  expanding  spiritual  church. 


CHAPTER  V 

OUR  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION 

P  HE  greatest  heritage  that  has  fallen  to  any 
single  people  in  history  is  our  Federal  Con- 
stitution. Its  making  was  the  greatest  human 
achievement  since  Creation,  and  it  marked  the 
greatest  event  in  the  history  of  the  world,  save 
only  the  Birth  of  Christ. 

In  this  age  of  perplexing  prohlems  and  chaotic 
conditions  there  is  nothing  that  one  can  do  with 
so  great  profit,  to  gain  a  clear  concept  of  cause 
and  remedy,  as  to  go  hack  and  read  the  history  of 
this  country  for  a  few  years  before  the  Constitu- 
tion was  written  and  a  few  years  after  it  was 
written. 

If  you  will  do  that  you  will  find  that  the 
splendid  people  of  those  early  days  with  their 
religious  fervor,  their  marked  intelligence  and 
noble  aspirations  were  in  a  good  deal  the  same 
condition  as  Russia  is  now  in  many  ways.  Before 
the  Constitution  was  written,  the  mob  drove  our 
Congress  from  Philadelphia  into  New  Jersey, 
Shay's  Rebellion  assaulted  the  courthouses  in  the 


44  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

State  of  Massachusetts,  money  was  worth  two  and 
one-half  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  we  had  no  credit 
anywhere.  Grave  concern  was  on  every  side  and 
many  of  the  people  wanted  to  abandon  any 
further  effort  and  turn  back  voluntarily  to  the 
monarchies  of  Europe. 

In  that  black  night  of  chaos  and  darkness  and 
despair,  fifty-five  men  met  in  Philadelphia  and 
wrote  the  Constitution;  and  almost  immediately, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
governmentally,  light  began  to  come  out  of  dark- 
ness, order  began  to  come  out  of  chaos.  Within 
ten  years  thoughtful  men  and  women  everywhere 
in  the  world  were  asking  the  question :  "What  was 
it  that  those  men  did  that  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  made  a  place  a  land  of  liberty 
and  opportunity  for  mankind?"  It  held  the  world 
in  an  attitude  of  awe  and  reverence  and  respect 
for  more  than  a  century,  and  it  is  the  only  govern- 
mental document  that  has  stood  the  test  of  time. 

During  the  hundred  years  following  its  adop- 
tion and  the  founding  of  this  Republic  we  made 
more  human  progress,  material,  mental  and 
moral,  than  the  world  had  known  in  all  time. 
During  that  hundred  years  we  were  the  most 
normal  people  in  our  homes,  in  our  schools,  in  our 
churches  and  in  our  industry  that  history  records. 


Our  Federal  Constitution  45 

We  developed  more  statesmen  on  American  soil 
during  that  hundred  years,  while  adhering  more 
closely  to  representative  government,  than  have 
been  developed  by  all  other  governments  of  the 
world. 

When  that  outstanding  world  statesman,  Wil- 
liam Pitt,  who  at  twenty-four  years  of  age  was 
prime  minister  of  England,  read  our  Constitu- 
tion, he  exclaimed:  "It  will  be  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  all  future  generations  and  the 
model  of  all  future  constitutions."  It  is  to  the 
everlasting  disgrace  of  every  State  in  this  Union 
that  they  have  not  modeled  their  State  Constitu- 
tions more  nearly  after  the  plan  of  the  Federal 
Constitution;  and  it  is  a  reflection  on  the  intelli- 
gence of  every  foreign  country  that  they  did  not 
translate  our  Constitution  into  their  own  lan- 
guage and  make  it  the  plan  of  their  form  of 
government. 

It  was  to  the  science  of  government  all  that 
the  ten  digits  were  to  mathematics,  the  alphabet 
to  language,  and  the  scale  to  music.  It  wisely 
provides  that  all  senators  and  representatives, 
members  of  the  State  legislature  and  all  executive 
and  judicial  officers  both  of  the  United  States  and 
of  the  several  States  shall  be  bound  by  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution. 


46          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

During  recent  years  there  has  been  a  woeful 
lack  of  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  that 
oath,  or  an  indifference  toward  it  that  borders  on 
contempt,  on  the  part  of  a  very  large  proportion 
of  our  public  officials,  and  this  fact  far  more  than 
most  people  realize  accounts  for  the  troublous 
times  in  which  we  find  ourselves. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  cover  an  analysis  of  the 
Constitution,  as  I  did  in  my  book  "Back  to  the 
Republic,"  but  in  succeeding  chapters  an  effort 
will  be  made  to  make  clear  some  of  the  priceless 
things  it  provided  and  some  of  the  blessings  that 
followed  as  a  result  of  its  marvelous  wisdom  and 
far-sighted  statesmanship,  indicating  the  tremen- 
dous importance  and  the  far-reaching  results  and 
possibilities  of  that  great  document. 

This  is  a  fitting  time  for  calm  and  careful  re- 
flection as  to  whether  we  will  stand  firm  for  Con- 
stitutional adherence  or  drift  still  farther  on  the 
wild  waves  of  statutory  amendments.  Before  the 
Constitution  was  written,  the  pendulum  of 
government  throughout  the  centuries  had  swung 
back  and  forth  from  the  monarch  to  the  mob.  It 
provided  a  middle  ground  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  autocracy  on  the  one  hand  and  democ- 
racy on  the  other,  the  golden  mean  between 
hereditary  and  direct  government. 


Our  Federal  Constitution  47 

It  is  that  sterling  quality  and  great  virtue  of 
the  Constitution  that  is  too  little  understood  and 
appreciated  by  those  who  advocate  departures 
and  amendments. 

Daniel  Webster,  who  immortalized  his  name 
as  "the  great  expounder  of  the  Constitution," 
made  it  quite  clear  when  he  said: 

"The  experience  of  all  ages  will  bear  me  out  in 
saying  that  alterations  of  political  systems  are 
always  attended  with  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
danger.  They  ought  therefore  never  to  be  under- 
taken unless  the  evil  complained  of  be  really 
felt  and  the  prospect  of  a  remedy  clearly  seen. 
The  politician  that  undertakes  to  improve  a  Con- 
stitution with  as  little  thought  as  a  farmer  sets 
about  mending  his  plow  is  no  master  of  his  trade. 
If  the  Constitution  be  a  systematic  one,  if  it  be  a 
free  one,  its  parts  are  so  necessarily  connected 
that  an  alteration  in  one  will  work  an  alteration 
in  all  and  this  cobbler,  however  pure  and  honest 
his  intention,  will  in  the  end  find  that  what  came 
to  his  hands  a  fair,  lovely  fabric,  goes  from  them 
a  miserable  piece  of  patchwork.  .  .  .  The  true 
definition  of  despotism  is  government  without 
law.  It  may  exist  in  the  hands  of  many  as  well 
as  one.  Rebellions  are  despotisms;  factions  are 
despotisms;  loose  democracies  are  despotisms. 


48          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

These  are  a  thousand  times  more  dreadful  than 
the  concentration  of  all  power  in  the  hands  of  a 
single  tyrant.  The  despotism  of  one  man  is  like 
the  thunderbolt  which  falls  here  and  there,  scorch- 
ing and  consuming  the  individual  on  whom  it 
lights,  but  popular  commotion,  the  despotism  of 
the  mob,  is  like  an  earthquake,  which  in  one  mo- 
ment swallows  up  everything.  It  is  the  excel- 
lence of  our  government  that  it  is  placed  in  a 
proper  medium  between  these  two  extremes,  that 
it  is  equally  distant  from  mobs  and  from  thrones." 

Alexander  Hamilton,  the  towering  genius  and 
master  mind  of  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
also  drove  the  point  home  with  tremendous  force 
when  he  said  to  the  Convention: 

"The  members  most  tenacious  of  republicanism 
are  as  loud  as  any  in  declaring  against  the  vices 
of  democracy.  .  .  .  Give  all  power  to  the 
many,  they  will  oppress  the  few.  Give  all  power 
to  the  few,  they  will  oppress  the  many.  Both 
therefore  ought  to  have  the  power  that  each  may 
defend  itself  against  the  other.  .  .  .  We  are 
forming  a  Republican  government.  Real  liberty 
is  never  found  in  despotism  or  the  extremes  of  de- 
mocracy. ...  If  we  incline  too  much  to 
democracy,  we  shall  soon  shoot  into  a  monarchy." 

Gouverneur  Morris,  who  was  responsible  for 


Our  Federal  Constitution  49 

the  style  and  finish  of  the  Constitution,  while 
delivering  the  oration  at  the  funeral  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  said  among  other  things : 

"It  seemed  as  if  God  had  called  him  suddenly 
into  existence  that  he  might  assist  to  save  a 
world.  .  .  .  Washington  sought  for  splendid 
talents,  for  extensive  information,  and  above  all 
he  sought  for  sterling  and  incorruptible  integrity. 
All  these  he  found  in  Hamilton." 

A  study  of  the  teachings  and  convictions  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  would  be  very  helpful  to 
all  who  are  desirous  of  a  better  understanding 
of  the  science  of  government.  He  foresaw  the 
grave  danger  that  we  might  drift  from  repre- 
sentative toward  direct  government  and  warned 
strongly  against  it. 

It  would  have  a  far-reaching  influence  for  good 
if  the  American  people  and  the  people  of  other 
countries  who  are  seeking  a  way  out  of  almost  in- 
surmountable difficulties  could  be  persuaded  to 
study  the  Constitution  and  read  the  discussion 
that  led  up  to  the  meeting  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  and  the  arguments  that  were  ad- 
vanced in  the  Federalist  and  elsewhere  for  its 
adoption. 

That  discussion  during  that  period  of  our  his- 
tory sheds  so  much  light  on  the  dangers  and  pit- 


50          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

falls  to  be  avoided  and  the  things  to  be  sought  for 
in  changing  from  revolutionary  tendencies  to 
orderly  processes  that  it  would  be  intensely  illumi- 
nating to  the  peoples  of  other  countries  and  ex- 
ceedingly helpful  to  the  American  people  at  this 
time  when  searching  and  testing  questions  are 
being  asked  as  to  cause  and  effect. 

|We  adhered  quite  closely  to  the  plan  of  the 
Constitution  during  the  hundred  years  follow- 
ing its  adoption.  On  September  17,  1877,  we 
observed,  at  Philadelphia,  the  centennial  of  the 
completion  of  the  Constitution,  which  in  my 
judgment,  was  next  to  the  greatest  meeting  ever 
held  on  American  soil.  The  distinguished  men  and 
women  of  this  and  foreign  countries  were  invited 
to  attend  and  a  record  of  the  proceedings  and 
events  was  compiled  in  two  volumes,  known  as 
"The  Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  Constitu- 
tion," by  Hampton  L.  Carson,  and  published  by 
Lippincott  &  Company.  It  contains  the  best 
portraits  available  of  the  men  who  sat  in  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention  and  brief  and  well  written 
biographies,  as  well  as  the  replies  of  distinguished 
people  who  accepted  invitations  or  expressed 
their  regrets,  and  other  interesting  and  informa- 
tive material  pertaining  to  the  history  and  worth 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


Our  Federal  Constitution  51 

The  great  William  E.  Gladstone,  .who  served 
in  the  public  life  of  England  longer  than  has 
"Uncle  Joe"  Cannon  in  the  public  life  of  Ameri- 
ca, in  cabling  his  regrets  said:  "I  regret  that  I 
cannot  come.  As  far  as  I  can  see,  the  American 
Constitution  is  the  most  wonderful  work  ever 
struck  off  at  one  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose 
of  man." 

In  a  resolution  adopted  in  Philadelphia  at  the 
celebration  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
Constitution,  it  was  beautifully  and  appro- 
priately recited  that  "The  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  is  the  most  important  event  in  the 
history  of  the  American  people,  and  the  instru- 
ment itself  the  sublimest  achievement  of  mankind. 
It  has  taught  the  world  that  liberty  can  exist  with- 
out license  and  authority  without  tyranny.  How 
completely  the  principles  upon  which  it  is  based 
have  met  every  national  need  and  every  national 
peril!" 

So  long  as  we  adhered  to  the  guidance  of  the 
wise  provisions  of  the  Constitution  we  made  great 
progress  in  this  country  and  wielded  a  wholesome 
influence  on  the  other  countries  of  the  world,  but 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
we  began  drifting  away  from  the  Constitution 
and  taking  up  popular  fallacies,  such  as  the  ini- 


52          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

tiative,  referendum,  recall,  boards,  commissions, 
bureaus,  excess  legislation,  class  legislation,  elec- 
tion of  judges,  the  long  ballot,  etc. 

We  are  reaping  the  results  of  unwise  depar- 
tures from  the  Constitution  in  ever  increasing 
expenses  and  ever  more  and  more  confusion  in 
governmental  procedure. 

In  1916  the  National  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the 
American  Revolution  suggested  the  wisdom  of 
observing  the  anniversary  of  September  17, 1787, 
in  commemoration  of  the  event  which  gave  birth 
to  our  Republic,  and  made  possible  the  blessing 
of  representative  government  for  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

A  movement  was  started  by  the  National 
Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
during  that  year;  since  then  other  patriotic  or- 
ganizations have  followed  the  suggestion  of  the 
Sons  of  the  American  Revolution.  In  1919  there 
were  over  six  hundred  meetings  held  throughout 
the  country  to  commemorate  the  completion  and 
signing  of  the  Constitution. 

A  general  observance  of  September  17,  the 
anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  our  Constitution, 
would  result  in  the  consideration  of  many  impor- 
tant questions,  much  sober  reflection  on  the  fun- 
damentals of  stable  government,  and  a  wholesome 


Our  Federal  Constitution  53 

influence  on  American  citizenship;  for  our  Con- 
stitution has  not  only  blessed  this  country,  but 
it  has  blessed  the  world,  and  it  has  within  it  the 
possibilities  of  extending  liberty  and  orderly  gov- 
ernment throughout  the  world.  A  more  general 
and  thorough  understanding  of  the  Constitution 
is  the  best  antidote  for  Bolshevism. 

The  following  verses  written  by  Col.  Archibald 
Hopkins,  one  of  the  noblest  men  in  this  country, 
will  be  read  with  inspiration  by  the  American 
people  and  should  be  memorized  by  the  pupils  in 
our  public  schools : 

HYMN  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

With  wisdom  and  with  patient  skill 

With  learning  and  profoundest  thought, 
With  zealous,  consecrated  will 

Our  patriotic  fathers  wrought. 

They  laid  foundations  deep  and  wide, 

They  made  their  own  immortal  plan, 
And  reared  on  lines  before  untried 

A  home  for  freedom  and  for  man. 

They  fortified  each  sacred  right, 

They  shielded  all  from  fraud  or  wrong, 
They  curbed  the  power  of  selfish  might, 

And  armed  the  weak  against  the  strong. 


54          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

Upon  themselves  they  put  restraint 

Lest  hasty  passion,  given  range, 
Should  silence  reason  with  complaint 

And  bring  some  needless  harmful  change. 

They  made  a  Court,  supreme,  august, 

To  curb  the  legislative  might, 
Lest  haste  or  greed  or  power  unjust 

Curtail  some  fundamental  right. 

All  autocratic  power  they  barred; 

Democracy  uncurbed  they  spurned. 
The  faults  of  both,  by  schooling  hard 

And  history's  teachings,  they  had  learned. 

They  wisely  chose  the  middle  way, 

A  government  of  balanced  powers, 
Whose  unobstructed  interplay 

Secures  the  safety  that  is  ours. 

They  dreamed  no  fond  Utopian  dream. 

They  knew  that  time  brings  growth  and  change, 
And  did  not  frame  a  rigid  scheme 

Where  growth  and  progress  may  not  range. 

All  hasty  change,  they  knew  full  well, 
With  danger  and  destruction  fraught, 

Would  sound  the  Constitution's  knell 

And  bring  their  pains  and  toil  to  naught. 


Our  Federal  Constitution  55 

Through  timid  doubts,  through  many  fears, 

Through  war  and  fierce  domestic  strife, 
Down  through  the  lapse  of  changing  years, 

They  guarded  well  the  Nation's  life. 

Beneath  the  Constitution's  shade, 

A  boon  and  shield  of  priceless  worth, 
We  stand  erect  and  unafraid, 

Unmatched  in  all  the  teeming  earth. 

The  Constitution:  still  it  stands 

August,  majestic,  loftly,  lone; 
No  fabric  wrought  by  human  hands 

Such  strength  and  symmetry  has  shown. 

The  Constitution:  there  it  towers, 

A  beacon  in  a  storm-tossed  world; 
And  peace  will  reign  with  all  the  Powers 

When  they  like  banners  have  unfurled. 

We  love  the  men  who  gave  it  birth, 

We  venerate  its  every  clause ; 
Benign  protector  of  the  hearth, 

Stern  guardian  of  the  country's  laws. 

To  us  belongs  the  pious  task 

To  ward  from  it  fast  gathering  foes, 
Both  those  who  lurk  'neath  friendship's  mask 

And  those  who  deal  it  hostile  blows; 


56          Safeguarding  'American  Ideal* 

To  teach  all  dwellers  in  the  land 

Its  meaning  and  its  power  to  bless, 
That  our  Republic  safe  may  stand, 

Through  every  threat 'ning  storm  and  stress. 

Supernal  wisdom's  guiding  ray 

Sought  by  the  founders  on  them  fell; 
God  of  our  fathers,  hear  us  pray; 

Guard  Thou  our  Constitution  well. 

Let  us  preserve  and  perpetuate  that  inspired 
American  ideal,  our  Federal  Constitution. 


CHAPTER  VI 

REPRESENTATIVE  GOVERNMENT 

NE  of  the  outstanding  facts  and  chief  vir- 
tues of  the  Federal  Constitution  was  that  it 
provided  for  a  strictly  representative  govern- 
ment, and  it  stipulated  a  guaranty  of  a  represen- 
tative government  for  each  of  the  sovereign 
States. 

There  are  just  three  ways  of  doing  anything  in 
any  field  of  activity — too  little,  too  much  and  just 
enough.  There  are  just  three  kinds  of  govern- 
ment— ,  government  which  derives  its  power 
through  heredity,  which  is  the  form  of  govern- 
ment known  as  an  autocracy;  a  government  in 
which  the  people  speak  and  act  directly,  which  is 
the  form  of  government  known  as  a  democracy; 
and,  a  government  in  which  the  power  is  dele- 
gated to  regularly  selected  representatives  with 
authority  to  act  and  assume  responsibility,  which 
is  the  form  of  government  known  as  a  Republic. 

There  is  as  great  a  difference  between  a  Re- 
public and  a  democracy  as  there  is  between  a 
Republic  and  an  autocracy.  An  autocracy  gives 


58  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

too  little  participation  by  the  people.  A  democ- 
racy gives  too  much  participation  by  the  people. 
A  Republic,  which  provides  for  a  wise  exercise  of 
the  law  of  selection,  deliberate  action  and  orderly 
procedure,  gives  just  enough  participation  by  the 
people. 

Hamilton  and  Madison,  in  their  discussions  in 
the  Federalist  and  elsewhere,  repeatedly  make  the 
distinction  between  a  Republic  and  a  democracy, 
and  clearly  show  that  the  intent  of  the  f  ramers  of 
the  Constitution  was  to  establish  a  strictly  repre- 
sentative government,  which  is  a  Republic. 

No  one  has  yet  been  able  to  point  out  within 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  the  faintest 
hint  of  a  suggestion  that  it  provided  for  direct 
action  in  any  way,  which  is  the  method  of 
democracy;  and  public  officials  are  still  required 
to  take  a  solemn  oath  to  uphold  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  that  is  the  only  thing 
they  are  sworn  to  do. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  and  much  more  that 
might  be  said  to  fortify  the  sanity  and  correct- 
ness of  this  point  of  view,  there  has  been  much 
reckless  talk  during  recent  years  of  making  the 
world  "safe  for  democracy."  This  country  and 
others  have  been  drifting  toward  democracy,  but 
Russia  was  the  first  full-fledged  volunteer  and 


Representative  Government  59 

her  action  was  hailed  by  the  newspapers  and 
magazines  and  by  socialistic  authors  and  dema- 
gogical agitators  as  the  realization  of  an  idealis- 
tic dream. 

As  soon,  however,  as  Russia  began  to  display 
exactly  the  results  which  have  characterized  every 
democracy  of  history,  the  enthusiasts  became 
apologists  and  coined  the  word  bolshevism,  which 
in  derivation  means  the  same  as  democracy. 

Many  of  the  difficulties  which  confront  us  to- 
day are  due  to  the  fact  that  for  twenty  years  we 
have  been  drifting  from  representative  toward 
direct  government,  and  the  mob-mindedness  that 
has  ensued  has  begun  to  permeate  the  home,  the 
school,  the  church  and  industry. 

Twenty-two  of  the  States  have  enacted  legis- 
lation providing  for  some  form  of  the  initiative, 
referendum,  recall  of  public  officials,  or  recall  of 
judicial  decisions,  all  of  which  mean  the  over- 
throw of  representative  and  the  substitution  of 
direct  government.  Yet  the  members  of  the  legis- 
lative bodies  which  enacted  those  statutes  had  all 
taken  a  solemn  oath  to  uphold  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  which  provides  for  a  repre- 
sentative government  and  guarantees  a  represen- 
tative form  of  government  to  all  the  States  which 
compose  the  Union. 


60          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

Of  the  twenty-two  States  guilty  of  these  dan- 
gerous departures,  fifteen  are  so-called  Repub- 
lican States  and  seven  are  so-called  Democratic 
States ;  so  it  is  quite  clear  that  there  has  been  little 
or  no  difference  between  political  parties  in  this 
regard.  The  tendency  has  been  general  as  well  as 
dangerous. 

We  have  been  swinging  from  the  sound  states- 
manship of  representative  government  in  a  Re- 
public toward  the  deceitful  demagogism  of  the 
direct  government  of  a  democracy. 

We  were  told  repeatedly  by  the  demagogues 
who  advocated  the  substitution  of  direct  primaries 
for  the  convention  plan  of  making  nominations 
that  the  results  would  bring  great  improvement. 
A  brief  experience  has  shown  that  it  has  greatly 
increased  expenses,  lessened  the  interest  of  the 
people,  increased  the  number  of  scandals,  and 
most  important  of  all,  it  has  given  us  a  larger 
quota  of  demagogues  and  lowered  the  standard 
of  public  officials.  Over  and  over  again  candi- 
dates have  been  nominated  through  direct 
primaries  who  would  not  have  received  serious 
consideration  in  a  deliberative  convention. 

Experiments  with  the  initiative,  referendum 
and  recall  have  been  equally  disappointing  in 
matters  of  legislation  and  administration. 


Representative  Government  61 

As  an  illustration  of  the  difference  in  method 
between  a  Republic  and  a  democracy,  take  the 
great  game  of  baseball. 

If,  in  the  game  of  baseball  they  relied  upon 
heredity  for  their  players  or  managers  or  um- 
pires, the  game  would  soon  degenerate,  just  as 
hereditary  government  does.  The  game  is 
played  according  to  rules  that  have  been  formu- 
lated, just  as  our  government  should  be  adminis- 
tered according  to  the  plan  of  the  Constitution. 

When  the  umpire  is  chosen,  he  administers  the 
game  according  to  the  rules.  When  he  says 
"Ball,"  it  is  a  ball,  and  when  he  says  "Strike,"  it 
is  a  strike.  When  he  says  "Out,"  the  player  is 
out,  and  when  he  says  "Safe,"  the  player  is  safe. 

Sometimes  the  umpire  errs,  and  if  he  is  wrong 
too  often,  the  only  sane  remedy  is  to  select  another 
umpire  who  will  make  fewer  mistakes.  That  is 
the  method  of  representative  government. 

Suppose  that  in  response  to  a  protest  from  the 
bleachers,  some  demagogue  of  the  type  that  this 
country  has  been  cursed  with  for  twenty  years 
should  step  out  and  say:  "Baseball  is  a  game  of 
the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people." 
That  would  be  true,  but  Lincoln  did  not  say  that 
was  democracy.  The  word  democracy  is  very 
conspicuous  by  its  absence  from  Lincoln's  vocabu- 


62          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

lary,  and  he  never  advocated  any  measure  of 
direct  action. 

But  let  the  demagogue  continue:  "We  have 
paid  our  admission;  It  is  our  game;  We  object  to 
the  ruling  of  the  umpire ;  We  should  take  a  vote 
on  it  before  the  game  continues."  (Great 
Applause. ) 

In  order  to  take  a  vote,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
provide  ballots,  secure  voting  booths,  appoint 
judges  and  clerks,  a  board  of  election  commis- 
sioners, etc.  It  would  take  more  time  to  vote  on 
one  ruling  than  it  does  to  play  a  game.  It  would 
cost  more  than  the  gate  receipts  amounted  to,  and 
it  would  then  be  necessary  to  create  taxing  bodies 
to  levy  an  income  tax  and  an  excess  profits  tax 
from  the  spectators. 

Let  your  imagination  picture  to  you  how  mob- 
mindedness  would  develop  among  the  spectators ; 
how  someone  would  suggest  the  recall  of  one  of 
the  players  in  order  that  a  friend  among  the  sub- 
stitutes might  get  into  the  game,  and  so  forth  and 
so  forth. 

Such  procedure  would  ruin  the  game  of  base- 
ball; yet  for  twenty  years  demagogues  have  been 
applauded,  approved  and  elected  to  high  office  for 
bombarding  this  Republic  with  proposals  for 
substituting  that  type  of  procedure  for  the  repre- 


Representative  Government  63 

sentative  government  established  by  the  Consti- 
tution. 

The  building  situation  is  in  a  very  serious 
condition  at  present,  partially  as  the  result  of 
democratizing  industry;  but  suppose  that,  in 
addition  to  the  present  confusion,  a  plan  should 
be  adopted  whereby  after  a  decision  to  erect  a 
building,  engineers  were  chosen  to  take  charge  of 
its  construction,  and  in  conference  there  should 
be  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  depth  the 
foundation  should  have,  and  one  of  the  engineers 
would  suggest  that  the  difficulty  could  be  met  by 
submitting  the  question  to  a  vote  of  the  people. 

Is  there  anyone  so  dense  as  to  suggest  that 
method  as  an  intelligent  procedure?  Yet  that  is 
exactly  what  we  are  doing  along  governmental 
lines, — drifting  from  our  heritage  of  representa- 
tive government  toward  direct  action,  and  many 
of  the  splendid  people  of  this  country  are  labor- 
ing under  the  hallucination  that  it  means  progress 
toward  an  ideal,  not  realizing  that  these  popular 
fallacies  are  as  old  as  Methuselah,  that  they 
played  their  part  in  the  downfall  of  Greece  and 
Rome  and  other  nations,  and  that  they  were  dis- 
cussed in  the  Constitutional  Convention  and  were 
rejected  by  the  wise  men  who  wrote  and  signed 
the  Constitution. 


64          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

The  trial  of  Christ  is  the  outstanding  spectacle 
of  the  danger  of  democracy.  Thrice  Pilate  an- 
nounced that  he  found  no  fault  in  Him.  Herod 
found  no  fault  in  Him.  But  through  direct  ac- 
tion, and  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions,  they 
crucified  Him. 

The  difference  in  procedure  between  a  Repub- 
lic and  a  democracy,  is  the  difference  between 
selecting  an  artist  and  undertaking  to  paint  a 
picture  by  mass  action;  between  selecting  a  doc- 
tor and  undertaking  to  write  a  prescription  by 
taking  a  vote  of  the  people  in  the  neighborhood ; 
in  other  words,  the  difference  between  exercising 
the  law  of  selection  in  choosing  a  representative  to 
work  out  problems  deliberately  with  information, 
or  deciding  questions  impulsively  and  emotion- 
ally through  mass  action,  with  little  or  no  infor- 
mation. 

Substituting  direct  action  for  representative 
government  tends  to  reduce  public  officials  from 
true  representatives  to  mob  psychologists  and 
crowd  echoes. 

True,  there  have  been  incompetent  and  un- 
faithful representatives,  and  doubtless  will  be,  as 
no  institution  is  perfectly  administered,  but  the 
remedy  lies  not  in  the  substitution  of  direct  action 
but  in  a  more  careful  exercise  of  the  law  of  selec- 


Representative  Government  65 

tion  and  a  stricter  adherence  to  representative 
government. 

The  monogamous  marriage  is  the  golden  mean 
between  polygamy  and  promiscuity  in  the  realm 
of  domestic  relations,  just  as  the  Republic  is  the 
golden  mean  between  autocracy  and  democracy 
in  government. 

There  are  few,  however,  who  would  contend 
that  in  the  event  of  failure  in  the  institution  of 
monogamous  marriage  the  remedy  lies  in  substi- 
tuting polygamy  or  promiscuity.  Thoughtful 
people  would  insist  rather  that  it  lies  in  a  more 
careful  exercise  of  the  law  of  selection  and  a 
stricter  adherence  to  the  marriage  vow. 

So  long  as  people  permit  themselves  to  concede 
mentally  that  the  substitution  of  direct  for  repre- 
sentative government  is  a  desirable  tendency, 
which  is  denied  by  every  page  of  history  and  every 
result  of  experience,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to 
think  clearly  or  accurately  on  problems  pertain- 
ing to  the  home,  the  school,  the  church  or  industry. 

It  is  that  tragedy,  more  than  any  other  one 
thing  that  accounts  for  the  confused  reasoning 
and  superficial  thinking  during  recent  years. 
There  is  common  agreement  that  something  is  the 
matter.  But  it  is  also  quite  generally  conceded 
that  in  the  multiplicity  of  discussions  there  is  lit- 


66          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

tie  that  clarifies  or  enlightens.  The  average 
earnest  seeker  after  truth,  as  to  cause  and  effect 
in  government  or  industry,  is  still  very  much  in 
the  dark. 

We  should  begin  at  once  a  campaign  of  educa- 
tion to  carefully  and  consistently  strip  from  our 
government  all  the  popular  fallacies  of  direct 
government  which  have  heen  attached  to  it,  and 
restore  strictly  representative  government.  We 
should  also  insist  that  some  political  party,  even 
though  it  require  the  formation  of  a  new  Consti- 
tutional party,  shall  formulate  and  maintain  a 
program  for  restoration  of  and  adherence  to  that 
priceless  American  ideal,  a  strictly  representative 
government. 


CHAPTER  VII 

INDIVIDUAL  PROPERTY  RIGHTS 

'  I  SHE  men  who  wrote  the  Constitution  and 
founded  this  Republic  established  individual 
property  rights  more  securely  and  fixed  the  title 
to  property  more  absolutely  than  it  had  been  done 
at  any  previous  time.  They  strove  to  avoid  the 
extremes  of  feudalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  all 
forms  of  socialism  or  communism  on  the  other; 
and  they  sought  also  to  avoid  the  dangers  of 
government  ownership,  in  so  far  as  it  was  consist- 
ent with  the  public  welfare. 

The  farsighted  wisdom  and  sound  reasoning 
of  those  men  seems  almost  miraculous  as  we  con- 
template the  difficulties  that  have  arisen  regard- 
ing property  rights  throughout  all  civilization. 

Demagogues  have  been  racing  up  and  down 
this  country  for  years  asking  the  absurd  ques- 
tions: "Are  we  going  to  put  the  dollar  above 
the  man?"  "Is  property  more  sacred  than 
humanity?" 

Each  question  is  an  appeal  to  emotion,  preju- 
dice and  stupidity.  The  men  who  founded  this 


68          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

Republic  understood  human  nature  in  its  relation 
to  property  sufficiently  well  to  know  that  when 
individuals  reach  a  state  of  mind  where  they  will 
destroy  property,  the  next  step  is  violence  to 
persons. 

They  sought  to  insure  the  safety  of  persons 
through  making  secure  the  rights  of  property. 
They  knew  that  personal  safety  and  property 
rights  go  together  and  that  each  is  fundamentally 
essential  to  the  other. 

They  sought  to  give  the  greatest  amount  of 
individual  freedom  consistent  with  the  promo- 
tion of  the  public  welfare,  to  encourage  individual 
initiative  and  to  provide  equitable  reward  in  pro- 
portion to  services  rendered. 

They  conceived  the  function  of  government  to 
be  to  protect  individuals  in  their  right  of  person 
and  right  of  property,  and  they  deemed  it  unwise 
for  the  government  to  engage  in  any  enterprise 
which  could  be  managed  better  by  individual 
effort. 

They  refrained  from  having  the  government 
engage  in  buying  and  selling,  or  dealing  in  prof- 
its and  losses,  or  price  fixing,  but  provided  that 
the  government  should  render  gratuitously  such 
service  as  seemed  necessary  to  protect  individuals 
in  their  right  of  person  and  right  of  property. 


Individual  Property  Rights  69 

For  that  purpose,  they  deemed  necessary  mili- 
tary forces  in  Nation  and  State,  a  sheriff's  office 
in  each  county  and  police  forces  in  the  cities,  and 
fire  departments  in  the  central  communities,  the 
service  in  each  instance  to  be  gratuitous  and  the 
expense  to  be  defrayed  through  taxation ;  also,  in 
most  cases,  control  of  the  water  supply,  that  it 
might  be  kept  pure  for  drinking  purposes  and  be 
available  for  the  supply  of  the  fire  department, 
and  sufficient  charge  made  to  defray  the  cost  of 
pumping  and  delivery. 

They  also  provided  for  the  construction  by  the 
government  of  such  internal  improvements  as 
seemed  consistent  with  the  public  welfare  and  for 
the  encouragement  of  private  enterprise,  toward 
the  end  of  building  up  the  country. 

They  deemed  it  expedient,  for  the  interchange 
of  communication,  that  the  government  should 
have  sufficient  interest  in  the  postal  system  to  be 
in  a  position,  when  such  an  emergency  as  the  Pull- 
man strike  arose,  to  see  to  it  that  the  mails  moved. 
The  policy  of  the  postal  department,  however, 
was  to  let  as  much  of  the  service  as  possible  to 
private  contract.  There  were  no  parcels  post 
deliveries  and  no  postal  savings  banks.  Such 
service  could  be  handled  better  by  express  com- 
panies and  regular  banking  institutions. 


70          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

The  phrase  "better  business  in  government  and 
less  government  in  business"  was  more  than  a 
meaningless  declaration.  They  sought  to  prevent 
the  government  from  loading  down  the  public 
payrolls  and  to  permit  the  handling  of  as  little 
money  as  possible  in  public  service — just  suffi- 
cient to  defray  the  expense  of  government. 

Finally,  it  was  considered  advisable,  for  the 
purpose  of  developing  a  more  enlightened  and 
patriotic  citizenship,  to  establish  public  school 
systems.  Here  again  the  service  was  gratuitous, 
no  charge  for  tuition ;  total  cost  of;  the  buildings, 
their  maintenance,  and  expense  of  teachers  and 
employees  to  be  defrayed  from  public  revenues. 
The  purchase  of  textbooks  until  recently  was  very 
wisely  left  to  those  who  were  to  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  education  at  the  expense  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

They  sought,  in  so  far  as  possible,  to  keep  the 
government  out  of  business.  Under  the  very  wise 
policy  of  adhering  quite  closely  to  individual 
property  rights  and  avoiding  the  extremes  of 
feudalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  socialism  or 
communism  on  the  other  hand,  we  developed 
within  one  hundred  years  the  most  remarkable 
and  satisfactory  industrial  conditions  ever 
known.  True,  they  were  not  perfect,  but  the  his- 


Individual  Property  Rights  71 

tory  of  the  entire  world  has  furnished  nothing 
with  which  to  make  even  an  interesting  com- 
parison. 

Evils  crept  in  gradually,  and  instead  of  weed- 
ing them  out,  through  careful  selection  of  con- 
structive statesmen  and  the  enactment  and 
enforcement  of  adequate  legislation,  we  began 
selecting  demagogues  for  public  office,  who  ad- 
vocated and  enacted  socialistic  and  class  legisla- 
tion, until  during  recent  years  we  have  developed 
quite  a  crop  of  Coxeyites,  Populists,  I.  W.  W.s, 
socialists,  reds,  radicals,  Non-Partisan  Leaguers, 
and  so-called  progressives. 

Those  organizations  are  continuously  propos- 
ing assaults  upon  individual  property  rights,  and 
the  danger  seems  gradually  to  be  infecting  legis- 
lation and  judicial  interpretation. 

As  one  illustration  of  many  that  might  be 
given  of  the  growing  disregard  of  property  rights 
by  individuals,  legislative  bodies  and  the  courts, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  handed 
down  a  decision  in  the  recent  case  of  Marcus 
Brown  Holding  Company,  Inc.,  vs.  Marcus 
Feldman,  Benj.  Schwartz,  et  al.,  that  caused  four 
members,  including  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  in  dissenting  from  the  opinion, 
to  say:  "We  are  not  disposed  to  a  review  of  the 


72          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

cases.  We  leave  them  in  reference,  as  the  opinion! 
does,  with  the  comment  that  our  deduction  from  ; 
them  is  not  that  of  the  opinion.  There  is  not  a 
line  in  any  of  them  that  declares  that  the  explicit 
and  definite  covenants  of  private  individuals  en- 
gaged in  a  private  and  personal  matter  are  sub- 
ject to  impairment  by  a  state  law,  and  we  submit, 
as  we  argued  in  the  Hirsh  case,  that  if  the  State 
have  such  power — if  its  power  is  superior  to  Arti- 
cle 1,  Sec.  10,  and  the  Fourteenth  Amendment, 
it  is  superior  to  every  other  limitation  upon  every 
power  expressed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  commits  rights  of  property  to  a  State's 
unrestrained  conceptions  of  its  interests,  and  any 
question  of  them — remedy  against  them — is  left 
in  such  obscurity  as  to  be  a  denial  of  both.  ... 
We  are  not  disposed  to  further  enlarge  upon  the 
case  or  attempt  to  reconcile  the  explicit  declara- 
tion of  the  Constitution  against  the  power  of  the 
State  to  impair  the  obligations  of  .a  contract  or, 
under  any  pretense,  to  disregard  the  declaration. 
It  is  safer,  saner,  and  more  consonant  with  con- 
stitutional preeminence  and  its  purpose  to  regard 
the  declaration  of  the  Constitution  as  paramount, 
and  not  to  weaken  it  by  refined  dialectics,  or 
bend  it  to  some  impulse  or  emergency."  .  .  . 
We  have  been  gradually  losing  our  sense  of 


Individual  Property  Rights  78 

"individual  property  rights  through  reckless  and 
^destructive  agitation,  and  putting  the  govern- 
ment into  business.  One  of  the  very  serious  ques- 
tions for  this  generation  is,  Are  we  going  to. 
continue  this  wild  orgy  toward  destruction  of 
individual  property  rights,  or  shall  we  restore  the 
processes  of  orderly  procedure  and  abandon  the 
trend  toward  socialism  and  paternalism? 

No  one  whom  I  have  ever  heard  of  or  read  of 
advocating  the  wild  schemes  of  mass  action  as  a 
substitute  for  individual  conduct  and  responsi- 
bility makes  any  pretense  of  pointing  out  to  us 
any  time  or  place  in  history  where  such  theories 
were  successful  or  yielded  results  at  all  compar- 
able to  the  conditions  which  we  enjoyed  in  this 
country  before  we  gave  willing  ear  to  the  hypo- 
critical demagogue  who  for  personal  profit  or  the 
political  popularity  of  the  moment  was  willing  to 
appeal  to  passion  and  prejudice  at  the  cost  of 
reason. 

Alarmists  have  tried  to  give  us  nervous  pros- 
tration by  talking  of  the  concentration  of  wealth. 
They  should  read  Christ's  parable  of  the  talents 
and  remember  that  statistics  prove  that  95  per 
cent  of  the  people  who  undertake  to  run  a  busi- 
ness on  their  own  account  fail,  that  most  of  the 
heads  of  business  today  began  at  the  bottom  rung 


74          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

of  the  ladder,  and  that  large  wealth  has  scarcely 
remained  in  any  family  for  more  than  three 
generations  in  this  country. 

All  those  who  are  gravely  concerned  about  the 
concentration  of  wealth  should  read  the  very  elu- 
cidating article  written  by  George  E.  Roberts  of 
the  National  City  Bank  of  New  York  on  "If  We 
Divided  All  the  Money,  How  Much  Do  You 
Think  You  Would  Get?"  It  was  published  in 
the  March,  1920,  American  Magazine,  and  re- 
printed in  pamphlet  form  for  distribution. 

In  this  article  Mr.  Roberts,  in  addition  to  giv- 
ing much  valuable  information  and  arriving  at 
some  very  helpful  and  interesting  conclusions,  has 
also  included  the  results  of  investigations  made 
by  Professor  Willford  I.  King  of  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  and  Professor  David  Friday  of  the 
University  of  Michigan. 

There  is  a  lot  of  worry  in  running  business,  and 
there  are  a  good  many  things  that  money  cannot 
buy.  The  hardest  working  people  in  this  country 
today  are  those  who  manage  large  industries  and 
face  the  problems  of  raw  material,  finished  prod- 
uct, payroll,  production  and  distribution,  supply 
and  demand,  employment  difficulties,  marketing 
fluctuations,  etc. 

A  very  small  percentage  of  our  people  are  sue- 


Individual  Property  Rights  75 

cessful  as  musicians  or  artists  or  poets  or  movie 
stars  or  inventors  or  surgeons  or  statesmen  or 
theologians,  and  that  probably  always  will  be 
true  because  it  is  very  natural  that  it  should  be  so. 

There  are  many  who  advocate  profit  sharing, 
but  most  of  them  lose  interest  in  the  subject  when 
confronted  with  the  counter  proposition  that 
those  who  wish  to  share  profits  should  first  put 
themselves  in  a  position  to  be  able  and  willing  to 
share  losses.  Losses  in  business  are  almost  as 
certain  to  occur  as  taxes  or  death. 

Abraham  Lincoln  stated  clearly  the  proper 
attitude  toward  individual  property  rights  when 
he  said:  "Property  is  the  fruit  of  labor.  Prop- 
erty is  desirable;  it  is  a  positive  good  in  the 
world.  That  some  should  be  rich  shows  that 
others  may  become  rich  and  hence  it  is  a  just 
encouragement  to  enterprise.  Let  not  him  that 
is  houseless  pull  down  the  house  of  another,  but 
let  him  work  diligently  and  build  one  for  himself ; 
thus  by  example  assuring  that  his  own  shall  be 
safe  from  violence  when  built." 

This  government  as  established  under  the  Con- 
stitution is  strong  enough  to  curb  abuses  of 
monopoly  of  any  kind,  and  to  regulate  the  con- 
duct of  any  individual  or  group  of  individuals  in 
the  interest  of  domestic  tranquility  and  the  pub- 


76  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

lie  welfare,  so  long  as  it  assures  individual  prop- 
erty rights  and  insists  upon  individual  respon- 
sibility for  individual  conduct.  If  history  and 
experience  prove  anything,  however,  they  prove 
that  no  government  can  be  successfully  adminis- 
tered which  tries  to  "run"  everything. 

The  former  method  develops  a  race  of  strong 
individuals;  the  latter,  an  inferior  people. 

Let  us  cling  tenaciously  to  that  steadying 
American  ideal,  adherence  to  individual  property 
rights. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

INDIVIDUAL   FREEDOM   IN   INDUS- 
TRY 

TfREEDOM  of  the  individual  in  industry  is 
right  now  challenging  the  attention,  the  wis- 
dom, the  courage  and  the  loyalty  of  the  American 
people  for  perpetuity.  It  is  being  challenged  by 
a  group  of  agitators,  some  of  whom  do  not  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  Americanism,  and  some  of 
whom  are  utterly  indifferent  to  the  spirit  of 
American  institutions. 

After  the  Constitution  was  adopted  as  the 
basis  of  government  for  this  Republic,  it  became 
more  and  more  evident  to  an  ever  increasing  num- 
ber of  thinking  people,  that  it  was  impossible  for 
both  a  system  of  slavery  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Constitution  to  exist  permanently  in  the  same 
territory. 

At  tremendous  cost  and  awful  sacrifice,  the 
question  was  finally  settled  that  "All  persons  held 
as  slaves  .  .  .  are  and  henceforward  shall  be 
free."  We  are  glad  now  that  we  have  a  Federal 
Union  under  one  Constitution  and  one  flag,  with 


78          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

a  government  which  provides  for  individual  free- 
dom in  industry. 

That  portion  of  the  country  where  slavery  was 
abolished — the  splendid  South — now  gives  evi- 
dence of  the  best  response  to  the  spirit  of  Ameri- 
can institutions  in  the  industrial  crisis  that 
threatens. 

Aside  from  the  condition  of  slavery  that  existed 
and  was  finally  abolished,  there  was  little  or  no 
thought  but  that  all  individuals  in  this  country 
could  work  where  they  pleased,  when  they  pleased, 
and  for  what  they  pleased,  and  be  protected  in 
their  personal  safety  and  property  rights. 

Whenever  we  concede  that  we  cannot  perpetu- 
ate that  condition  for  posterity  we  are  unworthy 
of  the  heritage  that  was  bequeathed  to  us. 

Groups  of  unscrupulous  so-called  labor  leaders 
have  been  trying  for  years  to  inflict  upon  the  in- 
dustrial institutions  of  this  country  the  policy  of 
the  closed  shop,  which  means  that  employers 
shall  employ  only  members  of  labor  unions. 
Labor  unions  require  their  members  to  contribute 
a  part  of  their  earnings  into  a  common  fund, 
which  runs  into  the  millions  of  dollars  annually. 

So-called  labor  leaders  are  selected,  and  paid 
from  this  fund,  to  make  it  their  business  to  dic- 
tate to  employers  whom  they  shall  employ,  what 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         79 

they  shall  pay,  and  how  many  hours'  work  shall 
be  done. 

They  insist  that  individuals  who  have  been 
thrifty  and  intelligently  industrious  in  develop- 
ing a  business  shall  have  no  voice  in  questions  of 
employment  in  their  own  institutions,  except  to 
yield  to  the  demands  of  these  professional  agita- 
tors. Many  of  the  demands  are  so  unfair  and 
unreasonable  as  to  threaten  the  ultimate  ruination 
of  business. 

Quite  a  number  of  employers,  through  short- 
sightedness or  cowardice  or  indifference  to  the 
spirit  of  American  institutions,  have  yielded  to  the 
absurd  demands  that  have  been  made  by  so-called 
labor  leaders,  until  the  situation  in  this  country 
has  become  very  serious.  Employers  who  yield 
are  worse  than  the  agitators  who  make  the  de- 
mands, because  through  encouragement  the  walk- 
ing delegate  becomes  more  aggressive  and  makes 
it  more  difficult  for  other  employers  to  resist. 

Many  employers,  in  a  sense  of  justice  and  the 
spirit  of  Americanism,  have  retaliated  by  declar- 
ing for  the  open  shop,  which  means  that  they  shall 
have  a  voice  in  determining  whom  they  will  em- 
ploy and  under  what  conditions  and  for  what  con- 
sideration work  shall  be  done,  without  regard  to 
membership  or  non -membership  in  a  labor  union. 


80          Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

The  open  shop  means  a  condition  under  which 
employers  exercise  their  constitutional  rights,  and 
provision  for  employees  to  enjoy  their  constitu- 
tional rights  if  they  so  desire.  It  has  well  been 
called  the  American  plan,  the  American  way. 

In  my  judgment,  the  employer  who  does  not 
run  an  open  shop  is  not  a  100  per  cent  American, 
and  the  employee  who  tries  to  frustrate  the 
existence  of  the  open  shop  is  not  a  100  per  cent 
American.  Employers  who  have  a  regard  for  the 
future  of  this  country  and  the  welfare  of  their 
children,  would  better  run  open  shop  or  close  up 
shop  entirely. 

Another  activity  of  the  so-called  labor  leader  is 
to  lobby  in  Congress  and  State  legislatures  for 
class  legislation,  such  as  the  Adamson  bill,  and 
for  discriminatory  legislation  which  provides  that 
laws  regulating  combinations  shall  not  apply  to 
labor  organizations,  etc. 

Members  of  Congress  and  of  the  State  legisla- 
tures who  yield  to  such  un-American  class-incit- 
ing methods,  and  enact  such  class  legislation,  are 
much  worse  than  the  makers  of  these  unjust  de- 
mands, because  they  have  taken  a  solemn  oath 
before  Almicrhty  God  to  uphold,  protect  and  de- 
fend the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  does  not  contemplate  class  consciousness. 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         81 

The  most  criminal  activity  of  so-called  labor 
leaders  is  their  procedure  of  approaching  em- 
ployers and  contractors  and  making  the  bold, 
criminal  demand  that  unless  $500,  $1,000,  $5,000, 
$10,000,  or  whatever  amount  seems  possible  is 
paid  over  at  once,  they  will  call  off  the  men  from 
the  job;  that  unless  plumbing  supplies  or  other 
materials  are  purchased  here  or  there,  the  work 
will  be  stopped,  and  will  not  be  resumed  unless  a 
bribe  is  forthcoming. 

Revelations  that  are  nauseating  are  being  made 
daily  as  evidence  reeking  with  crime  and  bribery 
is  produced  before  bodies  investigating  condi- 
tions in  the  building  trades.  Such  methods  have 
so  crippled  the  building  industry  that  we  are 
finding  it  difficult  to  shelter  the  people. 

In  a  recent  article  in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  re- 
garding hearings  of  the  Dailey  Committee  on 
building  conditions  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Albert  R. 
Brunker,  President  of  the  Liquid  Carbonic  Com- 
pany, is  reported  to  have  testified  that  a  graft 
payment  of  $1,200  was  made  to  William  Schardt, 
business  agent  of  the  carpenters'  union  in  con- 
nection with  the  installation  of  a  soda  fountain, 
and  that  although  the  largest  concern  of  its  kind 
in  the  world,  they  had  practically  been  driven  out 
of  business  in  the  second  largest  city  of  the  coun- 


82          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

try,  so  far  as  the  installation  of  soda  fountains 
was  concerned. 

He  also  testified  that  a  fellow  by  the  name  of 
Mclnerney  had  come  on  here  from  New  York 
and  tried  to  organize  the  marble  workers,  but  had 
let  it  be  known  that  if  $25,000  were  paid  him  he 
would  quit  the  city  and  leave  the  job  an  open 
shop. 

Ivan  O.  Ackley,  a  former  president  of  the  Chi- 
cago Real  Estate  Board,  is  reported  to  have  made 
the  flat  statement  that  every  person  who  has  con- 
structed a  building  in  Chicago  in  the  last  two 
years  has  paid  tribute  to  business  agents,  and  he 
gave  specific  instances. 

The  above  is  just  a  part  of  one  day's  hearing 
before  the  committee.  Chicago  is  probably  no 
worse  than  many  other  cities  in  this  regard. 

What  a  mass  of  destruction  and  crime  would  be 
revealed  if  the  whole  truth  were  known  of  the 
awful  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  single  indus- 
try of  the  building  trades!  And  the  notorious 
work  is  by  no  means  confined  to  that  field  of  in- 
dustry. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  so  many  so-called  labor 
leaders  graduate  from  their  criminal  activities 
into  the  penitentiary? 

In  cases  where  corrupt  employers  or  contract- 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         88 

ors  yield  to  the  blackmailing  hold-up  demands  of 
walking  delegates  or  so-called  labor  leaders,  and 
pay  the  criminal  bribes  demanded,  the  bribe  is 
not  divided  with  the  members  of  the  union  who 
leave  the  work  and  lose  their  time  and  are  de- 
prived of  their  earnings  pending  the  criminal 
transaction,  nor  is  it  put  in  a  common  fund  with 
the  dues. 

Be  it  said,  to  the  credit  of  the  rank  and  file  of 
labor  unions,  that  while  they  unwittingly, 
through  leaving  the  work,  give  the  kind  of  sup- 
port that  is  necessary  to  the  completion  of  the 
corrupt  transaction,  they  do  not  share  in  the 
tainted  spoils  of  the  unlawful  system. 

Another  dangerous  element  in  the  policy  of 
walking  delegates  and  so-called  labor  leaders  is 
the  utter  indifference  and  malicious  contempt 
with  which  they  regard  a  contract  or  an  agree- 
ment. To  say  that  they  regard  a  contract  or  an 
agreement  as  a  "mere  scrap  of  paper"  is  putting 
it  mildly. 

The  Constitution  forbids  the  passage  of  any 
law  impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts,  but 
there  is  a  very  wide  chasm  between  the  policy  of 
so-called  labor  leaders  and  the  plan  of  the  found- 
ers of  this  Republic. 

The  most  inhuman  activities  of  which  walking 


84  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

delegates  and  so-called  labor  leaders  have  been 
guilty  are  their  threats  that  unless  employers 
yield  to  certain  demands,  or  the  government  com- 
plies with  certain  requests,  union  labor,  through 
sympathetic  strikes,  will  so  tie  up  the  transporta- 
tion system  that  people  in  the  United  States  may 
starve,  or  tie  up  the  coal  mines  in  such  a  way  that 
people  may  freeze,  or  tie  up  the  building  situa- 
tion in  such  a  way  that  there  will  be  a  shortage 
of  shelter. 

The  fact  that  the  hardships  may  fall  upon 
"women  and  children  first"  does  not  deter  them. 

If  our  own  self-respect  does  not  move  us,  re- 
gard for  our  children  should  impel  us  to  put  an 
abrupt  stop  to  any  further  encouragement  of  such 
threatened  atrocities. 

The  most  contemptible  practice  in  which  so- 
called  labor  leaders  and  walking  delegates  engage 
is  the  manner  in  which  they  solicit  members  by 
calling  non-union  men  "scabs,"  threatening  the 
safety  of  their  homes  and  trying  by  various  means 
to  force  them  into  the  union  against  their  will. 
During  the  average  strike  their  conduct  along 
similar  lines  is  even  more  despicable. 

The  most  dangerous  of  all  the  activities  of 
walking  delegates  and  so-called  labor  leaders  is 
the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  getting  union 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         85 

men  into  the  public  service  and  organizing  those 
that  are  already  in  the  service  of  the  government. 

The  Boston  police  strike  was  an  illustration  of 
the  baneful  effect  of  these  pernicious  activities. 
The  periodical  threat  of  the  electrical  workers  to 
strike  unless  certain  demands  are  complied  with, 
and  throw  the  city  into  darkness,  leaving  the  peo- 
ple without  light,  is  a  sample  of  impending 
danger. 

One  of  the  greatest  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ 
was:  "Ye  cannot  serve  two  masters."  No  one 
can  faithfully  serve  Uncle  Sam  and  be  subject  to 
the  dictates  of  walking  delegates  and  so-called 
labor  leaders  at  the  same  time.  A  firm  stand 
should  at  once  be  taken  on  this  question  by  every 
true  patriot. 

In  this  Republic  we  want  no  slavery  of  em- 
ployees and  no  servility  of  employers;  either  is 
contrary  to  the  industrial  relationships  contem- 
plated by  American  institutions. 

Above  all,  Uncle  Sam  and  Miss  Columbia  must 
not  be  subjected  to  such  humiliation.  If  we  per- 
mit it,  we  are  unworthy  of  their  protection. 

Individuals  have  a  right  to  organize  in  this 
country,  and  one  could  readily  understand  why 
employees  might  desire  to  effect  an  organization, 
the  purpose  of  which  would  be  to  develop  and  in- 


86          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

crease  individual  efficiency,  or  to  bring  about  a 
condition  under  which  the  individuals  would  be 
more  nearly  rewarded  in  proportion  as  they 
develop  capacity  for  service.  But  why  an  Ameri- 
can, in  this  land  of  opportunity,  should  be  will- 
ing to  belong  to  or  contribute  to  an  organization 
which  takes  no  account  of  efficiency,  but  insists 
that  workmen  should  be  paid  alike,  without  re- 
gard to  efficiency  or  production,  is  beyond  under- 
standing or  comprehension. 

Real  Americans  want  to  be  paid  what  they  are 
worth;  they  want  their  wages  fixed  by  the  kind 
of  work  they  do,  and  not  by  a  union  card  they  are 
forced  to  carry  against  their  will.  And  they  want 
to  pass  that  privilege  on  to  their  children. 

Canvass  the  industries  of  this  country,  and  you 
will  find  that  the  men  who  have  risen  from  the 
bottom  rung  of  the  ladder  to  the  top  have  wasted 
little  time  or  money  in  following  or  supporting 
the  whims  of  the  walking  delegate. 

Less  than  4  per  cent  of  our  population  are 
identified  with  labor  unions.  Yet  it  is  estimated 
that  in  1911,  in  this  country,  union  men  paid  over 
$35,000,000  in  dues,  and  lost  over  $25,000,000  in 
wages  through  strikes.  And  it  is  estimated  that 
in  1919  there  were  more  than  3,000  strikes,  with  a 
loss  of  over  100,000,000  working  days.  Startling 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         87 

statistics  of  a  similar  nature  could  be  added  and 
multiplied. 

Probably  less  than  4  per  cent  of  the  members  of 
labor  unions  have  very  much  understanding  of 
the  inside  workings  of  their  organizations  as  car- 
ried on  by  walking  delegates  and  so-called  labor 
leaders. 

My  faith  in  the  good  intentions  and  average 
integrity  of  the  men  and  women  of  this  country, 
whether  they  be  members  of  unions  or  not,  is  very 
strong.  It  is  my  honest  judgment  that  if  all 
members  of  labor  unions  knew  of  the  methods 
pursued  by  walking  delegates  and  so-called  labor 
leaders  to  ruin  business  through  the  closed  shop, 
to  secure  class  legislation,  to  solicit  bribes  for 
selfish  gain,  to  repudiate  contracts  and  agree- 
ments, to  deprive  communities  of  food,  fuel  and 
shelter,  to  coerce  the  unwilling  to  become  mem- 
bers of  the  union  and  to  control  the  public  service, 
90  per  cent  of  them  would  demand  a  very  marked 
change  of  procedure. 

Such  atrocities  can  result  only  in  despoiling  the 
industries  of  this  generation  and  in  depriving  our 
children  of  the  enjoyment  of  such  opportunities 
as  had  fallen  to  us. 

Regardless  of  all  that  muckrakers  and  dema- 
gogues have  said  derogatory  to  the  business  men 


88          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

of  this  country,  the  fact  remains  that,  with  some 
exceptions,  they  are  splendid  and  useful  citizens, 
and  many  of  them  are  functioning  more  nor- 
mally with  their  thinking  processes  regarding 
present  day  problems  than  any  other  group. 

From  a  very  careful  observation  of  numerous 
industries,  it  is  my  conclusion  that  most  em- 
ployees have  greater  confidence  in  their  employers 
than  is  generally  supposed.  It  would  clear  up  the 
situation  surprisingly  if  the  heads  of  every  busi- 
ness in  this  country  would  call  a  meeting  of  all 
members  of  their  business  family  and  address 
them  as  follows: 

"This  institution  is  a  unit  in  the  industrial 
world,  just  as  the  home  is  a  unit  in  the  social 
world.  Most  of  the  difficulties  in  the  home  are 
due  to  outside  influence  and  interference.  Many 
of  our  difficulties  have  been  the  result  of  outside 
influence  and  interference.  We  may  not  know  as 
much  as  some  people  about  some  things,  but  we 
ought  to  know  more  about  running  this  business 
than  outsiders,  and  we  ought  to  settle  our  own 
problems  among  ourselves. 

"From  this  time  on  this  institution  will  be  run 
as  an  open  shop.  Demands  of  walking  delegates 
and  so-called  labor  leaders  will  be  ignored. 
Negotiations  will  be  had  only  with  those  identified 


Individual  Freedom  in  Industry         89 

with  this  concern.  No  bribes  will  be  paid  to 
quiet  disturbances  from  the  outside,  even 
though  it  necessitates  closing  down  the  plant. 

"Earnest  effort  will  be  made  by  the  manage- 
ment, and  co-operation  is  urged,  to  maintain 
comfortable,  adaptable  and  healthful  working 
conditions.  We  must  all  try  to  get  closer  to- 
gether and  farther  away  from  outside  influences. 

"All  just  complaints,  proper  requests,  and  con- 
structive suggestions  will  receive  fair  and  careful 
consideration.  Provision  will  be  made  for  those 
who  wish  to  purchase  an  interest  in  the  business 
and  share  in  the  management  as  part  owners. 
Those  who  desire  to  share  profits  must  be  in  a 
position  to  share  losses. 

"Compensation  will  be  based  upon  production, 
and  quantity  and  quality  of  service.  Promotions 
will  be  based  upon  merit  and  loyalty  to  this  busi- 
ness and  to  the  country.  A  deaf  ear  will  be 
turned  to  all  those  proposing  further  attempts  to 
democratize  or  Russianize  this  industry.  The 
central  idea  of  this  institution  must  be  service,  and 
we  must  all  strive  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  Golden 
Rule." 

My  confidence  in  the  good  intentions  and  fair- 
mindedness  of  the  rank  and  file  of  employees, 
including  most  members  of  the  labor  unions,  per- 


90  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

suades  me  that  such  an  attitude  on  the  part  of 
employers  would  receive  a  hearty  response  from 
employees.  Most  of  them  would  naturally  say: 
"That  would  be  about  my  attitude  if  I  were  run- 
ning the  business." 

The  best  way  is  generally  the  simplest  way. 
Let  everybody  who  loves  America,  whether  em- 
ployer or  employee,  give  firm  insistence  to  the 
restoration  and  maintenance  of  that  inspiring 
American  ideal,  individual  freedom  in  industry. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AVOIDANCE  OF  CLASS  CONSCIOUS- 
NESS 

/~\  NE  of  the  outstanding  achievements  of  the 
men  who  wrote  the  Constitution  and 
founded  this  Republic  was  their  avoidance  of  class 
consciousness. 

They  established  a  condition  of  government 
and  industry  freer  from  class  consciousness 
and  class  agitation  than  the  world  had  known  up 
to  that  time.  No  qualifications  except  age  and 
residence  were  placed  upon  the  Presidency  of  the 
United  States  or  the  Chief  Justiceship  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  or  any  other  public  office  within 
the  confines  of  the  Republic.  There  was  not  the 
faintest  hint  of  a  suggestion  of  class  conscious- 
ness or  class  action  in  the  Constitution. 

Their  plan  provided  that  aspirants  for  public 
office  would  not  be  asked  such  questions  as, 
Whence  is  your  origin?  From  what  family  do 
you  come?  From  what  schools  are  you  gradu- 
ated? What  degrees  have  been  conferred  upon 
you?  How  much  wealth  have  you  accumulated? 


92          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

To  what  church  do  you  belong?  But  rather  the 
test  should  be:  What  sort  of  character  have  you 
acquired?  How  much  capacity  have  you  de- 
veloped for  useful  public  service?  jWith  how 
much  understanding  and  loyalty  can  you  take  an 
oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  ? 

Oh,  what  a  period  of  romance  and  ambition  and 
fame  and  glory  of  achievement  followed  the 
adoption  of  that  procedure!  We  made  great 
theologians  and  evangelists  and  pulpit  orators  of 
boys  from  the  humblest  homes;  we  took  Presi- 
dents and  Senators  and  Judges  from  the  ranks  of 
farm  boys  and  rail-splitters,  tanner  boys  and  mule 
drivers  on  the  tow-path  of  a  canal.  |We  made  col- 
lege presidents  of  men  who  had  worked  their  way 
through  school;  railroad  presidents  of  section 
hands,  bank  presidents  of  boys  who  ran  errands 
and  also  did  the  janitor  work  in  the  bank,  cap- 
tains of  industry  of  men  who  worked  in  the  fac- 
tories. 

What  an  inspiration  to  read  the  biographies  of 
Hamilton,  Franklin,  Marshall,  Webster,  Lin- 
coln, Garfield,  McKinley;  of  Beecher,  Phillips 
Brooks,  Dwight  L.  Moody,  Swing,  Talmadge, 
Vincent,  Conwell,  Gunsaulus,  Hillis;  of  Lowell, 
Longfellow,  Whittier,  Emerson,  Hawthorne, 


Avoidance  of  Class  Consdousneu        98 

Irving,  Holmes,  Bryant,  Whitman,  Riley, 
Howells;  of  Amos  Lawrence,  Peter  Cooper, 
Rockefeller,  Carnegie,  Jim  Hill,  Westinghouse, 
Edison,  Armour,  Swift,  McCormick,  Stude- 
baker,  Wanamaker,  Field,  Horlick,  Leland,  Rey- 
nolds, Gary,  and  others  who,  through  the  avoid- 
ance of  class  consciousness  and  by  devotion  to 
individual  industry  and  duty,  have  helped  so 
greatly  to  make  the  name  of  this  Republic  syn- 
onymous with  the  phrase  "Land  of  Opportunity." 

Mothers,  soliloquizing  as  they  rocked  their 
babes  in  the  cradle  and  sang  lullabies,  were  happy 
with  dreams  of  future  greatness  and  service. 
Emigrants  came  to  our  shores  from  their  native 
lands  with  a  song  of  satisfaction  in  their  hearts, 
because  of  the  environment  of  individual  incen- 
tive to  be  found  here. 

Alas!  along  toward  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century,  demagogues  began  stirring  up  class  agi- 
tation and  organized  the  Populist  party  to  array 
the  farmers  against  the  people  of  the  city.  New 
York  was  called  "the  enemy's  country,"  while 
Wall  Street  was  spoken  of  with  a  slur.  The  Non- 
Partisan  League  is  now  striving  to  carry  forward 
the  malicious  work. 

Such  phrases  as  "the  common  people,"  "masses 
and  classes,"  "interests,"  "predatory  rich,"  "un- 


94  Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

desirable  citizens,"  "malefactors  of  great  wealth," 
"Ananias  clubs,"  "rent  hogs,"  "profiteers,"  "labor 
and  capital,"  have  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
phraseology  of  the  average  public  speaker  or 
candidate  for  public  office. 

As  a  result  of  such  class  agitation  and  epithets 
of  denunciation,  discussion  of  public  questions 
during  recent  years  has  been  reduced  quite  gener- 
ally to  superficial  appeals  to  passion,  prejudice, 
emotion,  hatred  and  the  baser  instincts. 

There  are  good  people  and  bad  people  on  the 
farms  and  in  the  cities,  and  they  need  each  other. 
ISTo  one  has  ever  made  a  clear  distinction  between 
"the  common  people"  and  others,  if  there  are 
such. 

It  would  be  a  very  interesting  experiment  for 
those  who  use  the  phrase  "masses  and  classes"  to 
start  a  card  index  and  try  to  classify  their  own 
acquaintances  under  those  two  headings.  The 
difficulties  encountered  might  effect  a  cure  of  the 
use  of  that  silly  phrase. 

This  Republic  was  not  intended  for  a  class 
card-index  country.  A  "rent  hog"  would  proba- 
bly be  defined,  in  the  last  analysis,  as  an  individual 
who,  having  property,  is  willing  to  rent  it  on  such 
terms  as  prospective  tenants  bidding  against  one 
another  are  willing  to  pay. 


Avoidance  of  Class  Consciousness        95 

When  comparison  of  that  silly,  class  inciting, 
demagogical  agitation  of  recent  years  is  made 
with  the  dignified  discussions  and  debates  of  for- 
mer years,  it  moves  one  to  exclaim:  "Oh,  what  a 
fall  was  there,  my  countrymen!" 

During  the  early  days  of  this  Republic,  we 
scarcely  heard  the  phrase  "labor  and  capital." 
We  talked  of  employer  and  employee,  and  it  was 
generally  assumed  that  employees  who  were  at- 
tending strictly  to  business  might  become  em- 
ployers, and  that  employers  who  were  not  would 
become  employees,  also  that  the  interests  of  em- 
ployer and  employee  are  mutual. 

One  of  the  dark  days  in  the  history  of  this  Re- 
public was  the  day  when  the  government  pro- 
vided for  the  establishment  of  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  the  Department  of  Labor,  because 
it  was  an  assumption  on  the  part  of  our  govern- 
ment that  the  interests  of  employer  and  employee 
are  antagonistic,  instead  of  mutual,  or  it  would 
not  have  created  the  two  separate  departments. 
It  was  my  judgment  at  the  time  of  the  separation 
that  from  that  moment,  and  so  long  as  the  two 
departments  existed,  the  breach  between  em- 
ployer and  employee  would  grow  wider  and 
wider. 

It  may  be  a  coincidence  and  not  the  reason,  but 


9<J          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

it  is  a  fact,  nevertheless,  that  every  twenty-four 
hours  since  the  two  departments  were  created,  the 
breach  between  employer  and  employee  has 
grown  wider  and  wider  and  people  have  grown 
more  class  conscious  and  mob-minded. 

One  of  the  most  wholesome  things  that  could 
happen  in  this  country  would  be  to  start  a  cam- 
paign of  education  in  Washington  that  would 
bring  about  the  merging  of  the  Departments  of 
Commerce  and  Labor  into  a  single  Department 
of  Industry,  with  provision  that  every  question 
considered  by  the  government  should  be  weighed 
upon  its  merits  without  regard  to  class. 

Such  action  would  serve  as  a  healthy  confession 
of  our  government  that  class  conduct  is  an  error, 
and  proclaim  a  much  needed  message  to  the  rest 
of  the  world,  now  bending  and  staggering  under 
the  heavy  load  of  class  consciousness. 

What  would  you  say  to  a  proposal  that  we  now 
divide  the  Department  of  Agriculture  into  a  De- 
partment of  Farmers  and  a  Department  of  Hired 
Men,  and  place  a  fanner  at  the  head  of  one  de- 
partment and  a  hired  man  at  the  head  of  the 
other?  Under  such  conditions,  would  the  depart- 
ments pertaining  to  agriculture  continue  to  work 
out.  without  bias,  the  problems  of  soil  culture, 
seed  selection,  live-stock  breeding,  marketing. 


Avoidance  of  Class  Consciousness        97 

etc.,  or  would  they  begin  to  think  in  terms  of  em- 
ployment and  class  consciousness?  How  would 
such  a  move  differ  from  what  has  been  done  to 
industry? 

From  the  pulpit,  the  platform,  in  the  class- 
room, at  conventions,  at  banquets  or  luncheons  or 
in  conversation,  wherever  public  questions  are  dis- 
cussed, we  hear  more  and  more  use  of  the  word 
"classes."  Executives  of  the  National  and  State 
governments  are  continually  designating  con- 
ferences to  be  attended  by  capital,  labor  and  the 
public.  At  what  time  in  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try did  those  who  labor  or  those  who  have  capital 
cease  to  be  a  part  of  the  public? 

Another  very  interesting  and  confusing  classi- 
fication might  be  attempted  upon  the  basis  of 
Who  is  labor?  Who  is  capital?  and  Who  is  the 
public?  The  attempt  at  such  classification  would 
be  about  as  successful  as  the  conferences  that  are 
held  under  the  spell  of  class  consciousness. 

One  of  the  very  serious  questions  for  this  gen- 
eration is,  Shall  we  continue  further  on  the  road 
of  class  consciousness,  which  leads  to  mediocrity, 
envy  and  final  decay,  or  shall  we  rekindle  our  in- 
dividual self-respect,  abandon  every  form  and 
vestige  of  class  thinking,  class  agitation,  class 
consciousness,  class  legislation  and  class  action, 


98          Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

and  restore  an  era  of  good  feeling,  brotherly  love, 
and  greater  devotion  to  the  saving  philosophy  of 
the  Golden  Rule? 

The  pathway  of  history  has  been  strewn  with 
wrecks  that  warn  against  the  danger  of  class  con- 
sciousness and  class  activity.  Russia  is  the  latest 
example  of  the  paralyzing  results  of  class  agita- 
tion. They  talk  of  the  bourgeoisie,  the  proletariat, 
the  intelligentsia,  the  bolshevik,  the  menshevik, 
the  I.  W.  W.,  the  Socialist,  and  the  rest, 
while  they  murder  and  pillage  and  destroy  prop- 
erty and  paralyze  industry  and  violate  law  and 
overturn  governments,  torture  patriots  and  out- 
rage women,  starve  children  and  repudiate  debts, 
and  then  beg  for  food  and  supplies  in  order  that 
they  may  continue  the  damnable  course  of  corrup- 
tion and  cruelty  and  destruction  toward  the  awful 
abyss  of  darkness,  despair,  and  death. 

All  true  patriots  should  make  this  a  solemn 
hour  of  decision  to  exert  their  every  influence  to 
curb  any  further  trend  in  that  dangerous  direc- 
tion, and  to  strive  for  a  restoration  of  that  noble 
American  ideal,  avoidance  of  class  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  X 

REVERENCE  FOR  LAW 

AW  is  a  very  broad  and  inclusive  word.  It 
comprehends  within  its  scope  discipline, 
manners,  authority,  thrift,  established  custom, 
constitutional  provisions,  statutory  enactments, 
accepted  judicial  precedents,  natural  processes, 
international  relationships,  and  the  purposes  of 
the  Infinite. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  this  Republic,  much  of 
the  business  was  transacted  by  word  of  mouth; 
conveniences  and  methods  for  making  binding 
agreements  and  facilitating  exchange  were  less 
developed.  Men  prided  themselves  on  the  fact 
that  their  word  was  as  good  as  their  bond,  their 
promise  as  good  as  their  note. 

So  almost  sacred  did  they  regard  contractual 
relationships  that  they  wrote  into  the  Constitu- 
tion "No  State  shall  .  .  .  pass  any  law  impairing 
the  obligations  of  contracts."  Their  formula  for 
thrift  was  "Spend  less  than  you  make;  save  up 
for  the  rainy  day;  be  prepared  for  the  hour  of 
sickness  or  misfortune." 


100         Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

Quite  generally  the  discipline  in  the  home  was 
almost  severe.  Respectful  recognition  was 
shown  for  the  authority  of  parents  and  their 
directions  were  followed  quite  closely  by  the 
children. 

Moral  support  of  the  parents  was  generally  ac- 
corded to  teachers  in  their  training  and  discipline 
of  the  children  at  school.  I  shall  never  forget 
when  my  father  said  to  me:  "If  you  are  punished 
at  school,  you  will  be  punished  again  at  home 
without  delay."  It  seemed  cruel  then,  but  every 
time  I  think  of  it,  I  thank  God  for  having  given 
me  a  father  who  loved  me  well  enough  to  say 
what  it  was  so  hard  for  him  to  say,  and  to  do 
the  thing  which  it  was  so  hard  for  him  to  do,  for 
he  kept  his  promise  with  true  New  England 
severity.  But  I  now  realize  that  it  hurt  him  more 
than  it  did  me.  His  attitude  was  not  the  excep- 
tion but  the  rule. 

Ministers  of  the  gospel  and  officials  of  the 
church  were  almost  universally  treated  with  a 
respect  that  bordered  on  reverence.  Support  of 
the  church  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  first  obliga- 
tions of  life. 

In  the  relationship  of  employer  and  employee 
there  was  usually  a  spirit  of  good  fellowship,  and 
at  least  the  employee  felt  that  a  request  or  com- 


Reverence  for  Law  101 

plaint  should  be  made  direct  to  the  employer  and 
not  through  some  outside  agency,  and  that  pro- 
motion or  reward  would  come  as  a  result  of 
service  well  performed  and  not  through  coercion 
of  outsiders  not  connected  with  the  business. 

So  strong  was  the  devotion  of  the  builders  of 
this  Republic  to  the  Constitution  that  it  was  pro- 
vided that  public  officials  should  take  an  oath  to 
support  it.  So  high  was  their  regard  for  the 
courts  that  they  provided  that  judges  should  be 
appointed  and  that  the  judicial  ermine  should  not 
be  dragged  into  the  heat  and  contentions  and  obli- 
gations of  a  political  campaign. 

I  shall  never  forget  how,  when  a  boy,  while  at- 
tending a  social  gathering  with  my  mother,  a  well 
poised  and  dignified  gentleman  entered  the  room 
and  she  said,  with  an  inflection  almost  of  awe  in 
her  tone :  "That  is  Judge  -  — ."  I  could  sense  in 
her  voice  a  feeling  of  confidence  that  this  man 
would  interpret  the  law  and  apply  it  to  the  facts 
wisely  and  hold  evenly  and  mercifully  the  scales 
of  justice.  Her  expression  was  an  illustration  of 
the  general  attitude  toward  the  judges  and  courts. 

Frequently,  in  my  youthful  days,  while  min- 
gling in  a  group  of  people,  someone  would  offer 
violent  criticism  of  some  public  official,  and  an- 
other would  respond:  "If  you  don't  respect  him, 


102        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

respect  the  office.  He  is  our (whatever  offi- 
cial he  happened  to  be)  now.  When  his  term  of 
office  expires  you  can  exert  your  influence  to  re- 
place him  with  a  better  man,  but  in  the  meantime 
respect  the  office." 

The  law  of  supply  and  demand  was  carefully 
considered  and  given  free  play  and  enlivened 
through  the  encouragement  of  healthy  competi- 
tion. Such  laws  as  were  passed  relating  to  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  were  designed  to  pre- 
vent the  putting  up  of  artificial  barriers  to  retard 
or  obstruct  the  natural  working  of  that  law,  to 
prevent  monopoly,  injurious  combinations,  etc. 

The  law  of  compensation  was  so  thoroughly 
understood  by  the  men  who  wrote  the  Constitu- 
tion and  founded  this  Republic,  that  they  knew 
that  rights  are  the  result  of  duties  well  performed. 
They  laid  little  stress  upon  divine  rights,  but 
much  upon  human  duties  and  purposes. 

The  preamble  of  the  Constitution  contains  no 
proclamation  of  rights,  but  it  is  the  sublimest 
statement  of  purpose  and  duty  with  which  I  am 
familiar  outside  of  the  Bible. 

There  is  no  claim  here  that  there  was  perfection 
of  conduct  on  the  part  of  our  ancestors,  or  that 
there  was  no  ground  for  improvement,  but  I  do 
contend  that  they  showed  a  greater  reverence  for 


Reverence  for  Law  103 

human  and  divine  law  than  civilization  had 
known,  and  thereby  made  the  greatest  progress 
which  history  records. 

What  about  the  situation  during  recent  years? 
The  recent  wholesale  cancellation  of  written  con- 
tracts that  swept  the  country  from  end  to  end, 
with  the  government  taking  the  lead,  is  a  partial 
answer.  And  what  a  mess  it  has  made  1  Strange 
that  it  should  have  followed  so  closely  the  inven- 
tion of  the  phrase  "a  mere  scrap  of  paper." 

How  often  do  we  hear  the  statement  "My  word 
is  as  good  as  my  bond"?  We  frequently  hear  it 
said,  on  the  other  hand:  "Well,  I  got  by,  all 
right;  I  put  it  over." 

How  carefully  are  we  weighing  the  question  of 
thrift?  What  about  discipline  and  respect  for  the 
authority  and  direction  of  parents  in  the  home? 
How  final  is  the  "No"  of  parents  to  children  mak- 
ing request  to  be  allowed  to  do  things  that  are 
disapproved? 

How  much  moral  support  are  we  giving 
teachers  in  the  discipline  of  children  in  our 
schools?  Whose  side  do  we  take  when  a  dif- 
ference occurs?  What  amount  of  encourage- 
ment are  we  giving  teachers  toward  the 
development  of  well  informed  and  patriotic 
citizens? 


104        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

What  about  our  respect  bordering  on  rever- 
ence for  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  officials  of  the 
church?  The  popularity  of  "The  Inside  of  the 
Cup,"  in  fiction  and  movie,  is  a  partial  answer. 

In  nearly  every  moving  picture  play  that  I 
have  seen,  where  a  minister  has  been  introduced 
as  one  of  the  characters,  he  is  depicted  as  a  sickly, 
silly,  effeminate,  awkward  weakling,  playing  a 
ridiculous  and  absurd  part. 

Think  of  it !  the  making  of  that  kind  of  impres- 
sion upon  the  child  mind  regarding  those  who  are 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  shepherds  of  the  church 
congregations,  those  who  preside  at  weddings  and 
administer  the  sacred  vows  of  marriage,  who  visit 
the  sick,  who  pray  with  the  unfortunate,  and  who 
speak  the  last  word  of  praise  and  supplication  at 
funerals  over  the  departed  dead!  The  tragedy 
is  that  such  an  exhibition  is  generally  met  with 
evidence  of  approval  instead  of  with  deserved 
resentment. 

The  above  is  not  true  in  the  representation  of 
the  priest  upon  the  screen.  Members  of  the 
Catholic  Church  would  not  tolerate  such  treat- 
ment of  their  spiritual  leaders.  Managers  of 
moving  picture  shows  should  be  made  to  under- 
stand that  public  sentiment  resents  the  idea  of 
ridiculing  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  photo  plays. 


Reverence  for  Law  105 

It  might  be  well  also  for  those  who  have  to 
do  with  church  management  and  discipline  to  con- 
sider the  fact  that  churches  are  flourishing  today 
about  in  proportion  as  they  adhere  to  a  well  or- 
ganized representative  government.  Democracy 
has  the  same  weakness  in  church  government  that 
it  has  in  civil  government. 

Isn't  it  probable  that  too  much  leniency  in  the 
home,  too  little  discipline  in  the  school,  indiffer- 
ence toward  the  church,  share  much  responsibility 
for  the  ever  growing  army  of  young  people  who 
are  constantly  and  increasingly  joining  the  ranks 
of  criminals? 

The  oath  to  uphold  the  Constitution  is  still  ad- 
ministered to  public  officials,  before  permitting 
them  to  take  office.  It  is  a  common  occurrence, 
however,  to  hear  candidates  for  public  office 
promising  support,  in  the  event  of  their  election, 
to  measures  or  legislation  that  would  violate  the 
Constitution. 

It  is  not  at  all  unusual  to  hear  public  officials 
who  have  taken  the  oath  to  uphold  the  Constitu- 
tion make  with  levity  or  swagger,  such  remarks 
as:  "The  Constitution  is  extinct;  we  have  out- 
grown the  Constitution ;  what  is  the  Constitution 
between  friends?  to  hell  with  the  Constitution  1" 

What  about  respect  for  public  officials?    Dur- 


106        Safeguarding  American  Ideah 

ing  recent  years  we  have  seen  Presidents,  Ex- 
Presidents,  and  candidates  for  President  go  up 
and  down  this  country,  like  patent  medicine 
vendors,  hurling  epithets  of  denunciation,  im- 
pugning each  other's  motives,  criticising  conduct, 
charging  corruption,  and  fairly  questioning  the 
loyalty  of  one  another  to  the  country. 

Candidates  for  the  United  States  Senate  and 
Congress  and  for  Governor  and  minor  offices  have 
followed  the  deplorable  example.  It  is  difficult 
to  maintain  respect  for  public  officials  who  violate 
their  oath,  who  are  reckless  in  the  appropriation 
and  expenditure  of  public  funds,  or  who  convert 
public  money  which  does  not  belong  to  them  into 
their  own  pocket.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  such 
offences  will  be  discussed  very  frankly  by  the 
people. 

The  cartoons  and  editorials  and  newspaper  arti- 
cles and  addresses  from  the  platform  in  a  recent 
judicial  campaign  to  select  twenty-one  judges  in 
Cook  County,  Illinois,  were  bad  enough  to  arouse 
the  envy  of  the  Bolsheviki  of  Russia;  and  Chicago 
probably  differs  little  from  other  cities  in  this 
regard. 

What  a  pity  that  most  of  the  States  have  sub- 
stituted the  absurd  plan  of  electing  judges  for 
the  wise  method  of  appointing  them ! 


Reverence  for  Law  107 

The  modern  disregard  for  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  is  evidenced  by  the  numerous  boards 
and  commissions  and  bureaus  and  dictators  that 
have  been  appointed  to  fix  and  determine  prices. 
The  awful  results  of  their  activities,  and  the  con- 
fusion resulting  from  excessive  legislation  on  the 
subject,  need  no  comment. 

A  prominent  minister  in  Chicago  recently 
wrote  an  article  which  was  published  in  one  of  the 
daily  papers,  in  which  he  ridiculed  with  much 
levity  arid  bad  logic  the  possible  existence  of  the 
God-given  law  of  supply  and  demand.  Such 
conduct  on  the  part  of  too  many  ministers  par- 
tially accounts  for  the  growing  indifference 
toward  the  church.  Would  it  not  have  a  very 
wholesome  effect  if  the  ministers  in  their  pulpits 
would  devote  themselves  more  fully  to  preaching 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  grand  old 
truths  of  the  Bible,  and  stop  talking  so  much 
about  industrial  and  governmental  problems,  of 
which  most  of  them  know  so  little  ? 

Our  appreciation  and  understanding  of  the 
law  of  compensation  has  been  evidenced  by  a  hun- 
gering appetite  for  more  rights  and  a  correspond- 
ing shirking  of  civic  duty  and  responsibility. 
Performance  of  duties  must  ever  be  the  forerun- 
ner of  the  enjoyment  and  security  of  rights. 


108        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

The  efforts  of  many  of  our  best  citizens  to 
avoid  jury  service,  the  manner  in  which  they  dis- 
regard speed  and  traffic  laws  and  try  to  avoid  the 
penalty  of  violation,  the  tolerance  and  leniency 
shown  criminals,  the  continuous  enactment  of  so 
many  laws  that  their  enforcement  is  impossible, 
are  all  illustrations  of  the  growing  disregard  and 
irreverence  for  law. 

A  very  serious  question  for  the  people  of  this 
generation  is,  "What  shall  be  our  present  and 
future  attitude  toward  law,  in  its  biggest  and 
broadest  sense?"  Shall  we  continue  the  down- 
ward path  or  shall  we  call  on  the  better  angels  of 
our  nature,  and  dedicate  ourselves  to  a  renais- 
sance of  reverence  for  and  obedience  to  law? 

The  whole  world  is  waiting  and  longing  for 
wise  guidance  toward  law  and  order.  Let  us 
give  earnest  devotion  to  the  restoration  of  that 
beneficent  American  ideal,  reverence  for  law. 


CHAPTER  XI 

UNSELFISH  NATIONALISM 

NE  of  the  gratifying  aspects  of  our  national 
life  has  been  the  safety  with  which  our  states- 
men have  been  able  to  steer  this  Republic  along 
the  safe  middle  road  of  nationalism,  avoiding  the 
selfishness  of  isolation  and  the  dangers  of  inter- 
nationalism. 

We  have  been  so  hospitable  in  welcoming  the 
people  of  every  land  and  clime,  that  this  country 
has  been  called  "the  melting  pot,"  "the  haven  of 
the  oppressed." 

Have  we  been  trustful  and  hospitable  to  the 
point  of  indiscretion?  Should  we  not,  as  patriots, 
be  giving  to  the  question  of  determining  the  char- 
acter of  those  whom  we  welcome  to  our  shores,  the 
same  serious  consideration  that  we  do  as  parents 
in  deciding  who  will  be  welcome  in  our  homes? 

Those  whom  we  welcome  in  the  future  will  be 
the  associates  of  our  children.  Care  and  good 
jndisrment  in  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of 
irpTTM  oration  law*?  is  imperative.  Charity  and  the 
duty  of  protection  begin  at  home.  Tt  is  time  that 


110         Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

we  should  (ascertain  from  those  who  are  here 
whether  their  purpose  is  to  support  our  institu- 
tions or  to  try  to  overthrow  our  form  of  govern- 
ment. A  veiy  searching  examination  should  be 
given  those  whom  we  welcome  in  the  future  as  to 
their  attitude  in  this  regard. 

Since  the  Constitution  is  the  basis  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  we  still  require  public  officials  to 
take  an  oath  to  uphold  it,  should  we  not  require 
foreigners  before  naturalization,  which  carries 
with  it  the  privilege  of  voting,  to  have  sufficient 
knowledge  of  the  Constitution  to  understand  that 
it  provides  for  a  strictly  representative  govern- 
ment, and  that  all  phases  of  socialism  or  direct 
action  of  paternalism  are  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
our  government?  A  clearer  understanding  of 
that  vital  truth  by  many  of  our  own  people  who 
are  not  foreigners  would  have  a  very  healthy  ef- 
fect upon  our  unselfish  nationalism. 

Millions  upon  millions  of  words  of  discussion 
have  been  spoken  and  written  upon  interna- 
tionalism during  recent  years,  most  of  it  confus- 
ing and  superficial  and  dangerous.  We  should 
ever  remember  that  thus  far  we  have  sailed  upon 
a  smoother  sea  in  our  international  relationships 
and  complications  than  any  other  great  nation. 
We  should  ever  bear  in  mind  that  those  nations 


Unselfish  Nationalism  111 

which  urge  upon  us  entrance  into  such  relation- 
ship have  all  had  many  tragic  and  costly  and 
destructive  experiences  in  international  ups  and 
downs  through  history. 

Before  taking  any  rash  action  we  can  all  read 
with  great  benefit  the  words  of  warning  and  wis- 
dom from  the  wise  men  who  have  guided  safely 
in  the  past  and  contributed  so  much  to  our 
heritage. 

In  my  judgment  there  is  one  thing  concerning 
which  little  has  heen  said,  that  should  he  done  be- 
fore we  abandon  the  security  of  nationalism  to 
embrace  the  subtle  dangers  of  internationalism. 

The  United  States  should  take  the  position  that 
before  it  will  put  its  signature  and  seal  upon  any 
international  compact,  the  compact  must  contain 
a  very  clearly  written  clause  which  will  provide 
that  every  nation  which  signs,  agrees  that  it  is  now 
satisfied  with  its  present  boundary  lines,  and  de- 
fines its  boundary  lines  as  a  part  of  the  compact, 
and  also  agrees  that  no  future  attempt  will  be 
made  to  extend  those  boundary  lines  by  conquest. 

This  Republic  is  the  most  successful  experi- 
ment of  confederated  activity  of  separate  States 
that  the  history  of  government  has  known,  and 
the  States  are  held  together  under  the  greatest 
political  document  ever  penned.  But  if  there  was 


112        Safeguarding  American  Ideal* 

i 

the  slightest  doubt  among  the  several  States  as 
to  the  definiteness  of  their  boundary  lines,  and 
there  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  some  States 
to  trespass  across  the  boundaries  of  other  States, 
we  should  soon  be  in  a  condition  of  alarm  and  con- 
fusion, if  not  bloody  revolution. 

How  much  more  would  that  be  true  in  the  con- 
federated activities  of  separate  nations,  unless 
there  is  first  established  absolute  definiteness  of 
boundary  lines  and  a  thorough  understanding 
that  no  future  effort  will  be  made  to  extend  those 
boundary  lines  by  conquest. 

If  a  stipulation  providing  for  agreement  of 
definiteness  as  to  present  and  future  boundary 
lines  should  lessen  the  ardor  or  dampen  the  en- 
thusiasm of  any  nation  now  pressing  for  interna- 
tional arrangement,  it  would  be  well  for  the 
United  States  to  ascertain  that  fact  before  becom- 
ing joint  signers  with  such  nation. 

Partnerships  are  generally  entered  into  with  a, 
pretty  definite  understanding  as  to  just  how  much 
each  partner  owns.  Corporations  are  generally 
formed  with  a  pretty  clear  understanding  as  to 
how  the  stock  will  be  distributed  among  mem- 
bers of  the  corporation.  When  that  is  not  the 
case,  the  results  are  frequently  disastrous. 

In  a  world  partnership  or  corporation  the  need 


Unselfish  Nationalism  118 

and  desirability  of  a  very  clear  understanding  and 
binding  agreement  as  to  the  definiteness  of 
boundary  lines  would  seem  to  be  quite  self- 
evident.  The  nations  of  the  world  are  war 
weary,  most  of  them  bankrupt,  and  all  of  them 
in  a  very  serious  situation. 

Would  it  not  be  a  very  good  time  to  plan  an 
era  of  arbitration,  and  where  two  or  more  nations 
lay  claim  to  the  same  territory,  try  to  fix  the 
boundary  lines  through  the  introduction  of  evi- 
dence, as  we  adjust  differences  between  indi- 
viduals in  regard  to  their  title  to  property? 

I,  for  one,  would  be  willing  to  have  Uncle  Sam 
make  this  proposition  to  the  rest  of  the  world: 
We  are  willing  to  enter  into  an  international  ar- 
rangement, in  which  we  agree  to  be  satisfied  with 
our  present  boundary  lines,  to  define  them,  and  to 
pledge  that  we  will  not  try  to  extend  them  by 
conquest,  provided  all  other  nations  will  enter 
into  the  agreement  on  the  same  terms. 

With  all  boundary  lines  defined  and  settled  un- 
der such  conditions,  90  per  cent  of  the  cause  of 
wars  would  be  removed  and  a  discussion  of  re- 
duction of  armaments  would  be  much  more  sim- 
ple and  satisfactory. 

We  have  heard  much  talk  of  moral  leadership 
during  recent  years,  but  for  the  most  part  we  have 


114        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

mistaken  the  utterance  of  empty  phrases,  glitter- 
ing generalities,  epithets  of  denunciation  and 
hyperbolic  perorations  for  moral  leadership.  No 
statesman  has  ever  yet  said  to  the  world:  "My 
country  is  ready  to  settle  and  define  its  boundary 
lines  and  agree  that  no  effort  will  be  made  in 
the  future  to  extend  those  boundary  lines  by 
conquest,  provided  other  nations  will  enter  into 
and  abide  by  such  a  compact." 

This  Republic  could  make  that  proposal  to 
other  countries  and  thereby  take  and  hold  the 
moral  leadership  of  the  world.  Until  the 
boundary  lines  are  settled  and  defined,  let  us  not 
step  over  the  precipice  from  the  rock  of  safety 
and  fall  headlong  into  the  meshes  of  internation- 
alism, and  until  the  boundary  lines  are  settled  and 
defined,  with  agreement  that  no  effort  shall  be 
made  to  extend  them  by  conquest,  let  us  cling 
tenaciously  to  that  anchor  of  safety,  the  protect- 
ing American  ideal, — unselfish  nationalism. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LOYALTY  TO  THE  FLAG 

THE  14th  of  June,  1777,  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  passed  the  following 
resolution : 

"Resolved,  that  the  flag  of  the  thirteen  United 
States  be  thirteen  stripes,  alternate  red  and  white, 
that  the  union  be  thirteen  stars  white  on  a  blue 
field,  representing  a  new  constellation." 

On  January  13,  1794,  President  Washington 
approved  the  following  Act  of  Congress: 

"Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  that  from  and  after  the 
first  day  of  May,  one  thousand,  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-five,  the  flag  of  the  United  States 
be  fifteen  stripes,  alternate  red  and  white,  and 
that  the  union  be  fifteen  stars  in  a  field  of 
blue." 

On  April  4,  1818,  President  Monroe  approved 
an  act  to  establish  the  flag  of  the  United  States, 
as  follows: 

"Sec.  1.  Be  it  enacted,  that  from  and  after 
the  4th  day  of  July  next,  the  flag  of  the  United 
States  be  thirteen  horizontal  stripes,  alternate 


11C        Safeguarding  American  Idealt 

red  and  white,  that  the  Union  have  twenty  atart 
white  in  a  blue  field. 

"Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  on  the 
admission  of  every  new  State  into  the  Union  one 
star  be  added  to  the  Union  of  the  flag;  and  that 
such  addition  shall  take  effect  on  the  4th  of  July 
next  succeeding  such  admission." 

The  old  flag  has  come  down  to  us  today,  over 
more  than  a  century  of  years,  with  no  taint  of  scan- 
dal, no  spot  of  dishonor,  and  no  record  of  defeat. 

Great  tributes  have  been  paid  to  it,  in  song  and 
story  and  eloquence  and  poetry  and  loyalty.  Its 
beauty  and  inspiration  are  beyond  the  description 
of  words.  It  has  been  called  "Old  Glory,"  "Flag 
of  the  Free,"  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner," 
"Flag  of  Our  Union  Forever,"  'The  Red,  White 
and  Blue,"  "Our  Flag,"  "Your  Flag  and  My 
Flag,"  "The  American  Flag." 

There  is  tremendous  meaning  in  that  beautiful 
and  inspiring  symbol  of  our  past  efforts  and 
achievements,  our  present  pride  and  possession, 
our  future  hopes  and  prayers. 

The  thirteen  stripes  are  in  loving  remembrance 
of  the  thirteen  original  colonies  which  began  the 
formation  of  "a  more  perfect  union"  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  stars 
represent  the  number  of  States  and  have  in- 


Loyalty  to  the  Flag  117 

creased  with  the  increasing  number  of  splendid 
States  that  form  this  mighty  Republic. 

The  blue  is  "true  blue."  It  is  symbolic  of  the 
truth,  the  loyalty,  the  constancy  and  infinity  of 
the  fundamental  principles  and  eternal  justice 
which  have  made  us  a  great  nation. 

The  white  is  clean  and  pure.  It  purifies  all 
other  colors  with  which  it  mingles.  It  is  symbolic 
of  the  cleanliness  of  motive,  purity  of  purpose 
and  prayerf ulness  of  devotion  to  the  fundamental 
principles  and  eternal  justice  which  have  made 
us  a  beneficent  people. 

The  red  stands  for  courage.  It  is  symbolic  of 
the  courage  that  has  been  shown,  the  sacrifices 
that  have  been  made  and  the  blood  that  has  been 
shed  (when  necessary)  in  order  that  we  might 
surmount  all  difficulties  to  establish  and  maintain 
and  perpetuate  the  fundamental  principles  and 
eternal  justice  which  have  made  us  a  tower  of 
strength  at  home  and  a  ministering  angel  abroad. 

Much  can  be  said  in  commendation  of  the  atti- 
tude of  most  Americans  toward  the  flag  duripg 
recent  years.  Large  amounts  of  money  are  in- 
vested in  flags.  The  flag  is  given  general  display 
from  our  homes,  our  schools  and  public  places  on 
proper  occasions. 

The    American   Flag   Day   Association   has 


118        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

brought  about  the  designation  of  June  14th  as 
Flag  Day,  when  a  portion  of  the  day  is  set  aside 
for  paying  tribute.  We  stand  at  salute  and  with 
uncovered  heads  as  the  flag  passes  on  parade.  We 
stand  with  reverent  respect  as  the  band  or  orches- 
tra plays  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner."  Quite 
generally  our  children  are  taught  in  school  to 
stand  at  salute  and  recite  the  pledge  of  "allegi- 
ance to  the  American  flag  and  to  the  Republic  for 
which  it  stands." 

There  are  many  other  flags  in  this  country,  such 
as  the  President's  flag,  the  flags  of  other  depart- 
ments of  the  government,  college,  fraternity  and 
society  flags,  service  flags  and  the  beloved  gold- 
star  flags,  but  they  are  all  subservient  to  the  Stars 
and  Stripes. 

There  are  some  people  in  this  country  who 
would  hoist  the  red  flag  to  supplant  the  Stars 
and  Stripes.  They  do  not  cherish  the  memory  of 
the  thirteen  original  colonies ;  they  do  not  respect 
the  States  symbolized  by  the  stars;  they  would 
wipe  out  the  blue  of  truth,  loyalty  and  constancy, 
and  the  white  of  cleanliness  and  purity.  They 
would  have  only  the  color  of  blood  and  cruelty 
and  revolution  and  carnage  and  murder.  They 
would  overturn  property  rights,  lower  the  stand- 
ards of  the  home,  destroy  the  church,  overthrow 


Loyalty  to  the  Flag  119 

the  government  and  substitute  revolution  and 
chaos  for  the  orderly  processes  of  law  and  order. 

Our  loyalty  to  the  American  flag  will  be  deter- 
mined by  the  dispatch  and  thoroughness  with 
which  we  eliminate  the  red  flag,  that  symbol  of 
treason,  from  the  confines  of  this  Republic. 

We  should  all  endeavor  to  bring  about  a  better 
understanding  on  the  part  of  ourselves  and  our 
children  of  how  the  flag  came  into  being,  and  of 
all  the  things  for  which  it  stands.  We  should 
make  clear  also  the  meaning  of  the  red  flag,  and 
the  fact  that  those  who  unfurl  it  do  not  regard  it 
as  subservient  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  but  that 
they  would  supplant  Old  Glory  with  it. 

Above  all,  we  should  try  to  select  public  officials 
who  understand  the  meaning  of  the  oath  to  up- 
hold the  Constitution,  and  of  sufficient  character  to 
have  a  high  regard  for  the  sacredness  of  taking  an 
oath.  It  is  my  solemn  conviction,  after  much  ob- 
servation and  thought,  that  more  of  our  difficulties 
than  we  realize  are  due  to  the  lack  of  understand- 
ing with  which  many  public  officials  take  the  oath 
to  uphold  the  Constitution  and  the  utter  indiffer- 
ence with  which  many  of  them  regard  the  oath. 

If  there  has  been  repetition  upon  this  point,  it  is 
intentional,  because  it  is  so  essential  that  the  people 
should  understand  and  public  officials  should 


120        Safeguarding  American  Idealt 

recognize  the  vital  and  far-reaching  importance  of 
fidelity  to  the  oath  to  uphold  the  Constitution. 
Violation  of  that  oath  is  disloyalty  to  the  flag,  of 
the  most  dangerous  kind,  because  it  is  the  disloyal- 
ty of  those  who  have  sought  and  accepted  a  trust. 

Hag  and  Constitution  have  traveled  side  by 
side.  The  fundamentals  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  symbols  of  the  flag  are  co-essential.  They 
will  stay  up  or  go  down  together. 

We  are  heirs  of  the  grandest  flag  that  ever 
symbolized  the  aspirations  of  a  great  people.  We 
should  so  live,  and  teach  our  children  to  live,  that 
at  present  and  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  that 
old  flag,  wherever  it  may  be  unfurled  to  the 
breeze,  whether  on  our  native  soil,  in  foreign 
ports,  on  foreign  lands  or  over  the  distant  seas, 
shall  be  recognized  as  the  guardian  of  the  lives 
and  property  of  our  people. 

We  should  so  revere  the  symbolic  truths  of 
Old  Glory,  and  proclaim  them  to  the  world,  that 
wherever  it  floats,  our  flag  shall  always  be  looked 
upon  and  admired  and  respected  and  saluted  as 
the  most  sacred  emblem  that  was  ever  wafted  to 
the  heavens,  as  the  most  beautiful  banner  that  was 
ever  kissed  and  caressed  by  God's  untainted  air. 

Away  with  the  red  flag.  Let  us  firmly  uphold 
that  magnificent  American  ideal,  loyalty  to  the 
flag. 


CONCLUSION 

PHERE  is  no  pretense  of  thorough  discus- 
sion of  these  American  ideals.  Volumes 
could  be  written  on  every  chapter  without  ex- 
hausting the  subject.  It  is  an  effort,  rather,  to 
start  a  train  of  thought,  and  provide  a  mental 
track  on  which  to  run,  for  those  who  are  asking, 
"Wherein  lies  the  trouble  and  what  can  I  do  to 
help?" 

Recently  I  had  a  very  unusual  conversation 
with  one  of  the  most  industrious,  thoughtful, 
successful  and  patriotic  men  in  this  country  re- 
garding a  contemplated  extensively  organized 
national  movement  to  put  on  a  campaign  for 
genuine  Americanism. 

This  man  has  been  industrious  and  thrifty  and 
has  accumulated  sufficient  wealth  so  that  he  could 
retire  from  business  and  live  comfortably  on  the 
income  of  his  investment,  so  there  is  no  prejudice 
in  his  point  of  view,  but  he  is  intensely  interested 
in  the  present  crucial  situation  and  the  future 
welfare  of  his  fellow  citizens. 

After  telling  me  something  of  the  amount  of 
time  and  money  he  had  spent  making  investiga- 


122        Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

tions  and  gathering  statistics  relative  to  general 
conditions,  he  arose  from  his  chair,  began  pacing 
the  floor,  and  spoke  about  as  follows: 

"It  is  too  late.  This  Republic  has  reached  the 
beginning  of  the  end.  Do  you  know  that  there 
are  seven  hundred  and  twenty-seven  departments, 
boards,  commissions,  bureaus  and  investigating 
and  dictatorial  bodies  in  Washington,  with  ap- 
proximately 90,000  employees,  most  of  whom  are 
confusing  conditions  still  more,  multiplying  ex- 
penses and  increasing  the  ever-growing  burden 
of  taxation,  and  that  similar  conditions  prevail  in 
most  of  the  State  governments  ? 

"Are  you  familiar  with  the  statistics  indicating 
the  growing  percentage  of  people  who  live  in 
cities  and  the  decrease  of  percentage  in  the  coun- 
try; the  increase  of  tenants  and  the  decrease  in 
percentage  of  home  owners  in  the  cities;  the  in- 
crease of  tenants  and  the  decrease  in  percentage 
of  farmers  who  live  on  their  own  farms?  Do  you 
know  of  the  alarming  drift  of  our  young  people 
into  the  ranks  of  criminals?  Have  you  noted  the 
tendency  toward  class  legislation  by  our  law- 
making  bodies?  Have  you  been  watching  the 
trend  toward  disregard  of  property  rights,  not 
only  by  people  generally,  but  as  evidenced  by  the 
decisions  of  our  higher  courts?" 


Conclusion  123 

After  continuing  for  a  time  along  a  similar 
strain  regarding  other  fields  of  activity,  such  as 
socialism  in  our  educational  institutions,  the  at- 
titude of  union  labor,  etc.,  he  exclaimed:  "Why, 
Atwood,  I  doubt  if  even  you  comprehend  the 
gravity  of  the  situation,  and  the  tragedy  is  that 
not  one  American  in  ten  thousand  is  sufficiently 
wide  awake  to  even  sense  the  danger,  to  say 
nothing  of  providing  a  remedy." 

If  there  is  more  than  an  element  of  truth,  or 
too  much  truth,  in  what  he  said,  it  emphasizes  the 
need  for  us  to  clarify  our  thinking  and  redouble 
our  efforts  to  surmount  the  difficulties. 

During  recent  years  there  has  been  much  talk 
of  new  visions,  a  new  world,  a  new  era,  a  new 
way  and  a  new  day.  But  the  makers  of  such 
phrases  are  gradually  awakening  to  the  fact  that 
their  new  visions  are  cloudy,  that  their  new 
world  is  weary  with  isms,  that  their  new  era  is 
tempestuous,  that  their  new  way  seems  uncer- 
tain, and  that  their  new  day  grows  darker  and 
darker. 

Why  not  realize  that  we  are  living  in  the  same 
old  world  today,  that  it  must  be  saved  and  im- 
proved in  the  old  way,  by  adhering  to  the  eternal 
principles  and  guarding  the  fundamental  insti- 
tutions that  history  and  experience  and  common 


124         Safeguarding  American  Ideals 

sense  teach  so  clearly  are  the  milestones  on  the 
highway  of  progress? 

This  is  a  time  for  individual  introspection  re- 
garding our  attitude  toward  American  ideals. 
For  their  preservation,  perpetuation  and  higher 
development,  let  us  all  take  this  self-examination : 

Am  I  putting  the  spirit  of  service  into  in- 
dustry? 

Is  my  home  a  center  of  character  building? 
Am  I  encouraging  better  training  for  citizenship 
in  the  schools  ?  Am  I  supporting  and  strengthen- 
ing the  church  as  a  spiritual  influence? 

Do  I  understand  and  support  the  Constitution 
and  insist  that  public  officials  shall  be  faithful 
to  their  oath  to  support  it?  Do  I  support  repre- 
sentative government  and  oppose  all  hazardous 
attempts  to  supplant  it  with  direct  government? 

Do  I  insist  upon  my  individual  property  rights, 
and  encourage  others  to  do  so,  by  opposing  the 
dangers  of  socialism,  communism,  paternalism 
and  government  ownership? 

Do  I  exercise  individual  freedom  in  industry, 
and  aid  others  to  do  so,  by  supporting  the  policy 
of  the  open  shop?  Do  I  avoid  class  conscious- 
ness and  class  agitation  and  oppose  class  legisla- 
tion, and  do  I  promote  the  principle  of  individual 
responsibility  for  individual  conduct? 


Conclusion  12* 

Do  I  manifest  a  reverence  for  law  by  encourag- 
ing proper  discipline,  proper  respect  for  author- 
ity, the  practice  of  thrift  and  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  God  and  man  ? 

Do  I  favor  the  security  of  unselfish  nationalism 
and  avoidance  of  the  dangers  of  internationalism 
until  the  boundary  lines  of  the  nations  are  defined 
and  established,  with  agreement  that  no  effort 
shall  be  made  to  extend  them  by  conquest? 

Does  my  loyalty  to  the  flag  include  a  constant 
endeavor  to  understand  the  meaning  of  its  sym- 
bolic grandeur  and  a  determination  that  the  red 
flag  shall  not  be  unfurled  in  this  Republic? 

Order  will  come  out  of  chaos,  and  progress  will 
supplant  confusion,  just  in  proportion  as  an  in- 
creasing number  of  individuals  can  answer  these 
questions  with  positive  affirmation. 

Therein  lies  the  way  out  of  present  difficulties. 

Therein  lies  the  assurance  of  a  mighty  future, 
that  may  transcend  our  glorious  past. 

"Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet — 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget." 


HARRY  F.  ATWOOD'S  OTHER  BOOKS 

Back  to  the  Republic,  $1.00 

(Also  Polish  translation) 

!a  copy  of  the  Constitution 
a  diagram  of  the  Constitution 
an  analysis  of  the  Constitution 

Mr.  Atwood's  book  is  a  marvel  of  straight  thinking  and 
clear  writing.  It  clears  away  the  fog  of  confusion.  A 
stimulating  contribution  to  the  literature  of  Americaniza- 
tion, and  it  all  "makes  a  book  that  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  every  person  who  is  honestly  searching  for  the  cause 
and  the  remedy  of  the  present  chaos  and  confusion.  It  is 
a  little  book  with  a  big  message  and  as  timely  as  it  is 
forceful. — The  Boston  Herald. 

"At  the  moment  when  the  terminology  of  politics  and 
government  has  a  heavy  load  of  meaning  to  bear,  but  is 
not  very  capable  of  bearing  it,  Harry  F.  Atwood  does  a 
great  service  to  clar-ity  of  thought  in  writing  this  short 
and  simple,  but  fundamental  book" — Chicago  Evening  Post. 


Keep  God  in  American  History,  35c 

One  of  Many  Similar  Comments 

Nothing  which  I  have  received  at  this  happy  time  of 
the  year  has  made  the  profound  impression  upon  me  that 
the  little  booklet,  "Keep  God  in  American  History,"  has. 
I  have  read  it  twice.  Would  that  it  could  be  brought  to 
the  fireside  of  each  family  in  America  during  the  next  few 
months.  It  is  infinitely  better  in  my  humble  opinion  than 
Elbert  Hubbard's  "Message  to  Garcia."  No  thinking  man 
can  read  this  magnificent  treatise  so  ably  expressed  by 
Mr.  Atwood,  without  believing  it  was  penned  for  some 
great  purpose.  It  is  so  peculiarly  appropriate  in  this 
transition  period  of  industrial  unrest  and  chaos. 

RUFUS  JARNAGIN,  Secretary, 

Metropolitan  Safety  Council, 
NEW  YORK,  N.  Y. 

Published  by 

LAIRD  &  LEE,  Inc.          Chicago,  111. 


